


Will You Be My Fake Boyfriend?

by Fansieonamission (msteen02)



Category: Newsies - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Christmas, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Idiots in Love, M/M, Modern Era, Mutual Pining, Sharing a Bed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-01
Updated: 2020-07-29
Packaged: 2021-03-01 20:14:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 21,934
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23942920
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/msteen02/pseuds/Fansieonamission
Summary: *I suck at summaries but I'm gonna try my best ok*Race is heading home for the holidays and his mom is bugging him about bringing someone home with him, wanting him to finally start dating again. He gets so fed up with his mother's nagging that he finally tells her, yes he is bringing his boyfriend home. The problem is, Race doesn't have a boyfriend, and when his mother asks who he's dating he blurts out the first name that comes to mind: Spot Conlon, aka his roommate, best friend, and crush. Fake dating antics ensue.
Relationships: Spot Conlon/Racetrack Higgins
Comments: 72
Kudos: 95





	1. You Did What?!?

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys! I’ve been very bored during quarantine, so what am I supposed to do? Write fan fiction of course! I’ve actually never written fan fiction before, heck I’m not even a writer, but I was bored enough and I wanted to give it a shot. I am writing this using one of my favorite tropes, the fake relationship/fake dating AU, because there is seriously not enough of that in this fandom. Is this a fake dating Christmas AU? Yes. Did I write this in the middle of April? Also yes. Do I care? No. So anyway, I’m going to try and update this once a week, maybe more if I can write faster. This is my first fanfic, the first original story I’ve ever written actually, so I would love to hear any constructive criticism you guys have because I honestly have no idea what I am doing. I hope you enjoy!

Spot’s POV:  
He typed away furiously on his laptop, willing the paper to just write itself. He sighed and looked out the window adjacent to him. He could see snow falling down onto the street below him and wished he could go out and enjoy it with his friends rather than being stuck behind his desk. 

“C’mon Spot.” He thought to himself. “All you gotta do is finish this last essay, then you’re free for winter break. You’ll have over a month off and you can spend as much time in the snow as you want as soon as you’re done.”

He couldn’t argue with himself. As much as he hated the idea of finishing this paper, he knew he had to get it done. Spot groaned and took a sip of his now lukewarm coffee before returning to the final paragraph of his essay.

All of a sudden, a loud jolt shot through the dorm room. Spot turned away from his desk to face none other than his roommate, Racetrack Higgins (his real name is Antonio or Tony, but no one calls him that except for his family), as the door slammed against the wall.

“Could you be any louder?” Spot asked annoyed and rolled his eyes. This wasn’t unusual for Race; the boy had to much energy - and strength for that matter - than he knew what to do with, despite his twig-like figure. He slowly turned back to his paper, knowing he couldn’t afford to get distracted any longer. Who is he kidding? As soon as he heard Race enter the room he knew he would be distracted with him sitting nearby. 

“Aw C’mon Spotty, don’t be like that,” Race said with a smirk. His beautiful blonde curls bounced as he jumped over the back off their shared couch to land on his stomach, chin resting on the arm of the chair as he watched Spot.

“Wait,” he thought to himself. “Did I just called Race beautiful?” Nope. No. Of course not. Why would he think that? His mind was momentarily racing and he didn’t know what he was thinking. He sighed, still not ready to deal with the internal crisis that’s been brewing inside of him for a while now. That’s a problem for another day. He reluctantly began typing again, hoping he would finish this stupid essay soon.

“Fuck off Racer. I’m not in the mood right now, and I really gotta finish this essay.” Spot kept typing.

“Jeez, someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning.” Spot didn’t respond.

Race cleared his throat. Spot made a noise of annoyance but continued to ignore the Italian boy. He stared at the computer

Race cleared his throat again. “Actually, there’s something I kinda need to talk to you about,” Race said, a hint of emotion behind his voice, but Spot couldn’t quite place what it was.

“What could be so important that you have to drag me away from my work? Seriously Race, you know I gotta finish this before break. Go bother someone else, like Jack or Albert.”

“I know, I know, I’m sorry,” Race responded quickly, “It really can’t wait till later, and I can’t go to any of the others cause they’ll just laugh at me and that won’t help. Plus, this kind of concerns you.” The blonde sat up quickly and turned his whole body to face his best friend.

Spot glanced at his computer one last time before he spun around to face the other boy, resigned to the fact that he wouldn’t be finishing his work anytime soon. He watched as Race started picking at a thread on the arm of the couch, his blue eyes flicking up to meet his gaze before flicking down quickly. If Spot wasn’t mistaken, it looked like the other boy was . . . nervous about what he was about to say. Something was clearly bothering him.

This was unusual for Race. Spot knew that if his usually animated and positive friend was nervous something was seriously wrong. Race was never one to hesitate, always getting caught up in some stupid shit by himself or with their friends. Race was naturally confident and never backed down from a challenge, so to see him so nervous was unnerving.

Spot didn’t say anything, just stared at the other boy expectantly. He wanted to know what was wrong, but didn’t want to rush Race with what he had to say. They stared at each other in silence for what seemed like hours but was probably only 10 seconds. 

Spot grew impatient and glared at his friend. “Spit it out, Race. What’s up?”

Race sighed and finally spoke. “So I may have done something stupid.” He looked sheepish.

Spot snorted. “Race you do stupid shit all the time. Hell, that’s a normal Tuesday for you. So seriously, what’s wrong?”

“I’m going to choose to ignore that you just said that.” Race scoffed and returned to the matter at hand. “Ok, I told you about how I’m going back home to visit my family for Christmas, right?”

Spot nodded. A couple of weeks ago Race mentioned he would be going home to visit his mother and sister for the week leading up to Christmas, and even invited Spot to tag along. Spot declined, however. Spot had so many close friends, and he was extremely grateful for that, but he didn’t have a family like Race and it always sent a pang through his heart when he saw others so happy, so unlike his own family. Spot would much rather stay in the dorms for winter break and explore the city some more, something he hadn’t had much time for this semester.

“So I was on the phone with my mom the other day, and, surprise surprise, she asked me if I was bringing anyone home for the holidays. She asks me if I’m finally seeing anyone every time she calls, and she always gets the same response, so I don’t see why she doesn’t just back off,” Race looked annoyed. “I’ve told her so many times that I’m not seeing anyone right now, but she refuses to listen. I was so fucking mad at her for bothering me again. I love her, I do, but this was seriously getting out of hand. I finally snapped because I was so fed up with her nagging me about it that I told her, I was in fact seeing someone and would be bringing them home to meet her.”

Spot’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion. “But you aren’t dating anyone,” he responded slowly. He knew Race hadn’t dated anyone in years, and Spot had witnessed on many occasion Race’s complaints about his mother’s persistence to get him back into the dating game. Spot knew his mother just wanted her son to be happy, but he saw how much it bothered Race when she would nag him about it all the time.

Race nodded and groaned as he fell back onto the couch dramatically. “See, that’s the issue Spot.” He suddenly looked nervous again. “When she asked me who I was dating I was so shocked that I blurted out the first name that came to mind.” He sat up again, hunching over, but still facing Spot.

“Well,” Spot asked expectantly. “What said sap is supposedly dating you?”

Spot watched as Race reached up to scratch the back of neck sheepishly. “Uh, yeah about that,” he chuckled nervously, “I may or may not have toldmyfamilyiwasdatingyouSpot.” Race glanced to the side, not meeting his eyes. He spoke so fast, one of the reasons he got the nickname Race actually, that Spot couldn’t understand a single thing he said.

“English Racer. I can’t understand ya.”

Race turned his eyes back to Spot’s. Spot really did love the color of his eyes. They were bright blue, the color of a robin’s egg. Race exhaled loudly. “I told them I was dating YOU Spot.”

Spot blinked. He took a second to process what he just heard.

“You did WHAT?!?”


	2. Will You Be My Fake Boyfriend?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Race and Spot discuss Race's predicament and find a solution, although it's not quite what they expected.

Race’s POV:  
“You did WHAT?” Spot shouted

Race winced as the other boy raised his voice. He felt terrible. He didn’t want Spot to be dragged into this but he didn’t know what else to do. 

“I know I shouldn’t have done that Spot. I was just so angry and confused and it just slipped out. I mean, you’re my best friend for crying out loud, I’m honestly not surprised it was your name I thought of first.” Race glanced to the other boy, who seemed to still be recovering from the initial shock of what he said.

They both sat in silence on the couch, just staring at each other. Race wasn’t quite sure what Spot was thinking; his face was a mask of neutrality. “Great,” Race thought to himself, “he probably hates me for pulling him into this mess.” 

Race closed his eyes and just thought to himself for a minute. He was leaving tomorrow so he needed to deal with this right away. He needed a way to get out of this mess without disappointing his family and ruining his relationship with his best friend. For what seemed like hours Race mulled over different ideas of what he could do. Suddenly, it hit him. His eyes, cast down before, shot up and a timid smile graced his face as he turned to look at his friend.

“Spot, I’ve come up with a plan to deal with this, but it’s very stupid. Promise me you’ll hear me out first before shutting me down, though.” He knew his plan could work, but he wasn’t sure if Spot would agree to it.

“Well? Spit it out Racer,” Spot said impatiently.

Raced became sheepish again, not sure how Spot would react to his ridiculous plan. “Will you be my fake boyfriend?” Race glanced at Spot and saw him blink a few times.

“I’m sorry, come again?”

Race sighed, exasperated. “I said, “Will you be my fake boyfriend?”

“Yeah, I know, I heard you the first time. But why?” Race looked at Spot who looked so confused. “Why can’t you just tell your family that you lied about this whole thing? That’s the obvious solution here dude.”

“NO!” Race shouted. “I can’t do that to my mother, Spot. You weren’t there when I told my family. My mother was so happy I was finally bringing someone home, I can’t just show up with no one. Plus my family already knows you because of how close we were back in high school, and my mom was ecstatic to hear that it was you I’d ended up with. It would break her heart if I told her I lied to her Spot.”

Race loved his family, and despite the fact that he hated his mother’s nagging, he didn’t want to turn around and rub it in her face that he was, in fact, still not in a relationship. Race would do anything to make his family happy. And Spot knew that, he hoped, and would therefore agree with Race’s crazy plan.

“Please Spot,” Race begged, giving the boy the best puppy dog eyes he could muster. They stared at each other, Race with a pout and eyes cast slightly downward and Spot with a glare that could kill. They must’ve sat there for several minutes, unblinking.

“Race,” he heard the other boy sigh, “I can’t believe I’m about to say this, but yes, I will temporarily fake date you.”

Race’s head shot up, a huge grin emerging on his face. He took a second longer to look at Spot to make sure he wasn’t lying, then tackled him in a huge hug. They both fell back against the couch, nearly falling off with the force of his actions.

“THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!” Race shouted. He was so happy. He knew he would owe Spot big time later, but for now he was just glad he didn’t have to worry about disappointing his family.

“Ok, here’s what I was thinking: We come up with a backstory for our relationship, we can come up with the finer details during the car ride up, and we tell my family about how we were friends first then boyfriends. We act like we’re dating while with my family, but once we get home we wait a week or two before telling my family that we thought we were better as friends and decided to break it off. No harm no foul.”

“Yeah ok, sounds good enough,” Spot responded. “Anything else I should know before we get to your family’s place?”

Race furrowed his brows, trying to think of anything that could throw off their plan. “Actually, there may be one thing we have to worry about. My family has seen how I act when I’m in a relationship, and they’ve pointed out to me on multiple occasions that I tend to get, uh how do I say this, a little too physically affectionate.” Race, feeling sheepish once again looked down and began wringing his hands together.

“Okay,” Spot said slowly. “What exactly does that mean?”

“It means,” Race began, “that they’ve seen how I acted with my exes and’ll be expecting I act the same way with you. That means I’m probably gonna have to constantly be touching you and - hey, don’t give me that smirk. Can’t you keep your head out of the gutter for one minute Spot? - and kissing you and hugging you and holding your hand. Coupley stuff, ya know?” Race sighed. This really was going to be harder than he initially thought. A realization suddenly struck him and his eyes widened and he began to panic

“Fuck. Oh my God Spot I’m so sorry. I know you’re not the most affectionate person and if you don’t wanna deal with me and wanna back out now before it’s too late I’d totally understand.” 

“Woah, woah, woah, Race slow down for a second. I’m not gonna back out because of something that small.” Race let out a sigh of relief. “You’re my best friend and I want to help you with this, especially cause this could get your mom off your back for a while, which I know is something you really need right now. We can work around this.” Race saw his face become focused and could practically see the cogs spinning in Spot’s head.

“How about this: your family knows you’re very affectionate so obviously you’re gonna have to play that up a little bit, which can’t be avoided, but we can just tell em’ that I’m not a fan of PDA or something and I’m sure they’ll understand if I’m not the same with you all the time.”

“Spot, you’re a genius!” Race cried out, then quickly quieted down again. “You’re seriously okay with me being super affectionate with you though?”

“Yeah, Race, that’s fine. We’ve been friends for years. A little affection isn’t going to kill me. And hey, if anything seriously starts to bother me I’ll let you know right away, okay?”

“Okay, deal,” Race confirmed with a sharp nod. He looked at the other boy and his usual smirk returned. “All right, boyfriend, we better get packing. We leave tomorrow.”


	3. You Know You Love Me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Spot and Race begin the long drive to Race's family's house. They discuss the backstory for their plan and Spot begins to think about his feelings for Race,

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry guys, this chapter is kind of short. Don’t worry though, the next chapter is extra long so it evens out. I’m sorry this wasn’t up sooner. I meant to post it yesterday but I got busy and forgot.

Spot’s POV:  
Spot groaned as he threw their bags into the trunk of his old car. They were leaving today to stay with Race’s family and Race had given Spot the “privilege” of loading their bags into the car while he grabbed them both coffee. It was the crack of dawn since they had to leave super early if they wanted to make it to Race’s family’s place by late afternoon. They had a long drive ahead of them and Spot wasn’t too keen on being crammed into the car for that long, but he didn’t really have a choice at this point.

“C’mon Spot, get a move on!” He heard Race shout from a few feet away. “We don’t got all day.”

Spot knew Race wasn’t usually this lively in the morning, and he could only assume that he was so upbeat because he was excited to see his family soon. Spot groaned and quickly threw the last of their bags into the trunk, slamming it closed, and turned to glare at his best friend. “Higgins I will kill you myself and hide your body where it will never be found if you do not shut up right now.”

“Somebody’s not a morning person. Race said. Race laughed, a beautiful sound, and gave him a smirk, “Spotty, you don’t mean that. You know you love me.” Spot grunted in response as Race walked over to hand him a large to-go cup of coffee. Spot accepted it greedily and chugged down half the cup before walking around the car to the driver’s side door and getting in. “You said it yourself Racer, let’s get a move on.”

Race hopped into the passenger seat as Spot started the car. Spot quickly set up the GPS with the address Race had given him earlier before putting the car in reverse and backing out of the university parking lot. They drove for about 10 minutes not saying anything to each other, each of the boys still trying to fully wake up. After a few more minutes he heard Race clear his throat and glanced his way.

“I know it’s super early and we’re both still really tired, but we’ve gotta work out the story we’re telling my family about how we got together. I know my ma’s gonna be really nosy, so the more detail the better, but we don’t want to make it so complicated that we’ll never remember it. Any ideas?”

To be honest, Spot hadn’t put too much thought into their situation. He was so distracted the night before as he tried to quickly pack for a week-long trip that he didn’t really have time to think about the details of their plan too much. He turned to Race. “I don’t have anything specific in mind. You make something up.”

Race nodded to acknowledge that he heard him and went quiet. A few minutes went by, Spot enjoying the quiet and gazing peacefully across the nearly empty highway in front of them. Finally, Race spoke up.

“I say we keep it simple. Something like: we were sitting on the couch in our dorm a month ago watching a movie together and I turned to you to make a joke but I found you already staring at me and we kind of just stared at each other before you leaned in to kiss me and the rest is history.”

Spot nodded. “Yeah, alright, sounds good enough to me.”

“Great, because now that that’s figured out I’m gonna take a nap. Wake me up when we’re there.” Spot rolled his eyes, slightly jealous that the other boy got to sleep away the rest of the drive away while Spot was stuck behind the wheel. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Race shift to curl up on the seat and his eyes fluttered shut. Spot reached out and turned the radio on, keeping it quiet and setting it to some random station so he wouldn’t have to sit in silence the entire ride.

Spot sighed, a lot on his mind. Their story was easy enough to remember, so he wasn’t worried about that. He was, however, worried about having to act like a couple with Race. He was super nervous, but didn’t want to let him down. Spot would do anything for Race, because he was his best friend. “But you don’t want him to be your best friend,” he thought glumly. “You want him to be more.”

Spot didn’t know when, but he recently realized that his feelings for his roommate were definitely more than platonic. He realized it gradually, as he began to catch himself watching Race during movie nights - the irony in the fact that their backstory is more accurate than Race knew isn’t lost on him - and he began noticing Race’s little habits more and more. The more he began to notice about Race the more he knew he wanted to be Race’s boyfriend, not just his friend, but he couldn’t tell him because he didn’t want to ruin their years of friendship over a stupid crush.

As he drove, his mind flashed back to this morning when Race had jokingly said “You know you love me,” and he sighed wistfully. “Yeah, I do,” he thought.


	4. The Charade Begins

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Race and Spot finally arrive at Race's family house, and they get settled in, preparing for a long week ahead of them.

Race’s POV:  
Race awoke to someone lightly poking his arm. He groaned and turned away from the hand without opening his eyes. He grumbled, “Five more minutes.”

He heard a slight chuckle beside him. “C’mon Racer, you gotta get up,” he heard Spot say quietly. “We’re gonna be at your family’s soon.”

At that Race instantly perked up. Had he really slept the whole car ride? At this point it didn’t matter, because soon he would be able to spend an entire week with his family and best friend. 

“But you want him to be more,” he heard the little voice in his head chime in. He instantly blushed, praying that Spot didn’t notice. He took a glance to his side and saw Spot looking intently at the road ahead of them. He let out a small sigh of relief. “Thank goodness,” he thought. “Imagine having to explain why I was blushing to Spot: I was just blushing because I thought about how much I want to date you.” He was sure that conversation would not end well.

He didn’t know exactly when he had fallen in love with his best friend, it had just happened. And now he had to pretend to date him. Great. And really, he only has himself to blame; it was his idea, after all.

He knew it would be hard, but he had to hide his true feelings for Spot because he didn’t want to ruin their friendship and make things awkward between them this week. He knew acting like a couple would hurt him, but he had no other option. He couldn’t help but feel a little guilty as he had his own motivation behind this little ruse: he couldn’t help but dream that this could one day become a reality, and maybe this week Spot would see how amazing Race could be and would actually want to date him. But that’s all it was: a dream. He knew Spot could never like him like that, and he wasn’t about to ruin their friendship with a stupid crush, so he wasn’t gonna mention it.

He saw Spot turn to him out of the corner of his eye. Race met his gaze as Spot asked, “Are you ok dude? You look a little nervous. You gotta chill out man, its not like they haven’t met me before.”

Oh God, Spot noticed something was up. Well, at least Spot gave him an easy way to avoid the truth. He nodded. “I know they’ve met you before, but it’s just weird that I’m introducing you as my boyfriend, ya know?”

“We aren’t actually dating, so we got nothing to worry about. Especially because we’re going to fake break up in a couple of weeks.” Race felt a pang shoot through his heart, and tried not to let his disappointment at those words show on his face.

He chuckled awkwardly. “Yeah, I guess you’re right.”

They drove in silence for about fifteen more minutes before Spot pulled off the highway to a main road. As they continued to drive Race began to see so many familiar sights from his hometown before they finally pulled into a neighborhood and ended up in the driveway of his childhood home.

His childhood home was a quaint little two-story house. The house had white clapboard siding along the walls and a nice, gray roof. Race stared nostalgically at the tiny porch out front where he would play during long summer days when he was younger.

They both sat still after Spot turned the car off before hesitantly looking at each other. Race ran a hand through his hair, one of his nervous ticks, then they both stepped out of the car to grab their bags from the trunk. Once Spot had locked the car, they slowly made their way up to the front door. Race’s nerves kicked in again. He took a deep breath and let it out before turning to Spot. “Alright boyfriend, Let’s do this.” He knocked on the door.

Race instantly heard muffled shouting coming from behind the door and he turned to Spot, confused. Spot gave him a shrug in response, as if to say, “Why are you looking at me? It’s your family.”

Before they both had more time to question what was going on in the house, the door was thrown open and he was promptly tackled into a hug. “Antonio!” He heard his mother’s cheery voice shout. His mother suddenly pushed him away to hold him at arms length to get a good look at him. “It’s so good to see you. You really need to visit more. We miss you.”

“Speak for yourself, mom” He heard another voice speak up from behind his mother. He watched his mother as she turned to slap the other person lightly on the arm. “Melody, that is not a nice way to greet your older brother!” She shouted exasperatedly.

Race’s smile was so big he felt like it was about to jump off of his face. “It’s really nice to see you Ma, and you too Melody.” He tried to give his sister a pointed glare, but he was too happy to be able to pull it off. He hadn’t been able to visit in so long; their campus wasn’t too far away, but the drive is long and hard to handle too often, especially when you travelled alone like Race usually did.

“Mom, Mel, this is, uh, this is my boyfriend, Spot, but you already knew that,” he said as he turned to Spot. “Spot, you remember my family.”

Race never could have predicted what happened next. He watched, shocked as his mother tackled Spot into a hug similar to the one she gave Race. He knew his mother was affectionate, but she never acted this way before with Spot or any of his other friends. They stared at each other wide-eyed, and Race couldn’t help but let out a small chuckle.

“Oh Spot, it’s been so long since I saw you last. What was it, your high school graduation? No matter, you’re always welcome here. Especially since you’re officially a part of the family now,” his mother practically squealed and Melody just looked amused.

Race, flustered by his mother’s statement about Spot officially being family, blushed and sputtered out “Calm down Ma, it’s not like we’re married or anything.”

“Not yet,” she responded playfully, and threw him a wink. Race didn’t think he’d ever blushed so hard, and was surprised to see Spot looked the same out of the corner of his eye. He avoided making eye contact with him. 

Race’s mother turned on her heel and began walking into the house. “Come on in and get settled in Race’s room. Dinner should be ready in about an hour.”

Grateful for the excuse to end that awkward conversation, they both quickly stepped inside. As Race stepped into the house it was like stepping back in time, and he was sure Spot felt the same, as they practically lived at each other’s houses when they were teenagers. He looked ahead through the entranceway. His mom and sister scurried through the living room before heading to the kitchen adjacent to it, no doubt finishing up their dinner. He and Spot headed to the staircase located to the right and made their way to Race’s old bedroom. 

He and Spot threw their bags on the ground by the door before both collapsing on Race’s bed, the exhaustion from their long day of driving finally hitting them (even if Race did sleep practically the entire way). 

Race turned to Spot, suddenly nervous. “Shit, I didn’t think ahead to ask Ma to set up an air mattress. You take my bed, I’ll sleep on the floor.”

“Race don’t be an idiot. This is your house, you take the bed, and I will take the floor.” Race groaned, not wanting to argue with Spot about something as stupid as sleeping arrangements, but he refused to back down.

“Spot, you are my guest. You will not be sleeping on the floor. If you won’t take the bed, neither will I.”

He heard Spot scoff, “Well I’m not gonna use the bed if you won’t.”

Race, annoyed with Spot, just burst out, “Ya know what? How about we just share the bed. That way we both win.” He knew how stubborn the both go them could be and knew this argument would last for hours if he let it, so he just blurted out the first thing that came to mind.

As soon as the suggestion was out of his mouth he regretted it. Race internally scolded himself, “Yeah, good idea Race, asking to share a bed with your crush. Won’t be awkward at all.”

Spot made a noncommittal hum in response, “Yeah, sure. It’s not like we haven’t shared a bed before.” He had a point. Race reminisced on the few times they would collapse on each other’s beds together during sleepovers and wouldn’t bother to move to their own separate sleeping arrangements.

Being back home with Spot brought back so much nostalgia for Race. Different memories flashed through his mind from playing video games with Spot during their sleepovers to them spending afternoons studying together and cheering each other on during their respective sports competitions: for Spot, football, and for Race, track (another reason for his nickname) and dance. He sighed contentedly and looked over to Spot who seemed to also be lost in thought, already forgetting the mini argument they had. It was peaceful.

Apparently they had been sitting there for longer than he though, because Race was suddenly broken out of his reverie with a loud shout coming from downstairs, “Boys, dinner’s ready!”

Race’s stomach growled loudly, making both boys burst into laughter. Race didn’t realize how hungry he was until now, since he hadn’t really eaten anything all day; he had breakfast and coffee early this morning, but he fell asleep for the whole drive and hadn’t eaten anything since.

He jumped up from the bed and extended his hand to Spot and pulled him up. Race didn’t let go of his hand. 

He turned to Spot, rubbing the back of his neck with his free hand. “Should we, ya know, hold hands or something on the way down? We are supposed to be boyfriends after all.”

He saw something flicker in Spot’s eyes, but before he could decipher what it was his face quickly returned to his neutral state. 

“Sure, why not. Gotta start this somehow.” Race prayed that Spot couldn’t feel how fast his hand was getting sweaty. He felt Spot tug on his arm, leading him out of the room. “C’mon, let’s go, I’m starving.”

With that, they headed downstairs, bracing themselves for what was to come. Their charade was about to begin.


	5. It's About Time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The boys sit down to dinner with Race's family and have to begin to try and convince them they are actually dating.

Spot’s POV:  
They boy’s step into the dining room and are bombarded with the smell of something amazing. Spot’s mouth waters, starving after only eating small snacks throughout the day. They both sat down; Race across from his sister and Spot across from Race’s mother. Race’s mother had already set up everyone’s plates and as soon as they sat down everyone began to eat.

“There you boys are!” He heard Race’s mother exclaim. “You were taking so long I was about to come up and get you myself, although I really don’t wanna know what you two were doing up there alone,” she said as she winked playfully at them.

Spot instantly turned bright red, not sure how to respond to that, he turned to Race and saw that he was bright red as well.

“Gross, Ma!” Melody let out a groan, “I did NOT need that mental image, right before dinner no less.”

Spot saw Race’s blush get even darker How that was possible, Spot would never know.

Quickly trying to get out of this awkward conversation, Spot cleared his throat and asked, “Thank you for having me, Mrs. Higgins, especially on such short notice.”

“Of course sweetie, you’re always welcome here, and please, call me Maria. Besides, It wouldn’t have been such short notice if somebody,” she turned a pointed glare towards Race, “would have told me they were bringing their boyfriend home with them.” He heard Melody snicker.

Spot urned to Race and saw that he had the decency to look sheepish, reaching up to rub the back of his neck again. “Sorry, Ma.”

“Oh Antonio, I’m just teasing,” she gave him a small smile. “It’s about time you two got together anyway. Honestly, I’ve been waiting for you to get together since your junior year of high school.”

Spot, who had just grabbed his glass, nearly choked on his water when he heard her say that. “What do you mean you’ve been waiting for it?”

“Oh c’mon, do you think I’m oblivious? You boys were always so close I couldn’t help but wonder if there was something between you two back then. Clearly there wasn’t, but you still ended up together. I’m so glad you guys finally found each other.”

Spot saw the huge smile on Race’s mother’s face and couldn’t help but feel guilty for lying to her. He didn’t know how to respond so he gave her a small smile in return and hoped it didn’t look too forced. 

“Speaking of,” he heard Melody chime in, “How did you two end up together?”

Spot turned to Race, “Do you wanna tell them the story, babe?” Whoops. He didn’t mean to call Race ‘babe,’ it just sort of slipped out. 

He turned to Race to gauge his reaction, and he saw Race flush slightly and he stuttered over his words. “Sure, uh, babe?” Race responded, almost as if he was asking a question, clearly embarrassed by Spot’s use of the pet name and note sure how to react. He saw Melody and Maria exchange a confused look at their little reaction, but he ignored it, still nervous about playing the part.

“It happened about a month ago now. Spot and I were watching a movie together in our dorm and . . .”

Spot quickly zoned out as Race began to recount their made up tale of how they had gotten together. He watched as Race’s eyes lit up as the story progressed and Spot couldn’t help but stare at his best friend.

“ . . . I just can’t believe he was the one to make the first move,” he was snapped back into reality as he heard Race chuckle. “Looks like Spot’s tough-guy act is really just an act,” he said as he nudged Spot playfully. “He really is a big ol’ sweetheart.”

Spot groaned, glaring at Race. “Higgins, just because we are dating now does not mean I am not willing to punch you,” he responded, shoving Race playfully.

Everyone at the table laughed and the conversation eventually switched topics. They spent the rest of dinner just catching up with each other. Spot reminded Race’s family that he was currently working on his mechanical engineering degree, a nice compliment to Race’s physics degree if he did say so himself: both boys often bonded over the hard course work they had with their respective science majors. Spot also learned how things had changed since he had last seen Race’s family; Melody had picked up a job at a bakery and Race’s mother had gotten a promotion for her nursing job. Overall, everyone was well.

After dinner, Spot and Race cleaned up everyone’s dishes and began to wash them The rule in the Higgins household was that whoever cooked didn’t have to do the cleaning. Race tried to protest, but his mother wasn’t cutting him any slack even after their day of traveling. After they were finished they decided to fo to bed, even if it was early; they were both exhausted from their long day.

“Hey Ma, Melody, me and Spot are gonna go to bed. Night”

Spot heard a faint response coming from the other room, “Goodnight sweetie! Sleep well you two.”

With that, both boys made their way up to Race’s room. Both boys got ready for bed, then collapsed onto Race’s bed, the tension between them finally breaking.

Spot let out a sigh of relief, “We did it Racer: one day down, only a week more to go. They actually believed us.”

“See Spot, my plan wasn’t stupid after all. I’m a genius!”

Spot snorted in response, “hey, you’re still forgetting the fact that you’re the one who got us into this mess in the first place, so don’t get all high-and-mighty on me. Alright, I don’t know about you, but I’ve had a long day and I’m ready for sleep.”

Race nodded in agreement, but neither boy moved, the realization that they had to share a bed hitting them.

“Soooo,” Spot heard Race say, “what side of the bed do you want?”

He shrugged. “I don’t have a preference.”

“Thank God, I was not about to fight you for the side next to the wall, because that is MINE,” Race said, voice too full of sincerity for such a trivial issue, Spot thought.

With that, both boys began to make their way under the covers. When they settled down they were both lying on their sides, backs facing each other and as far away as possible in the tiny bed.

“Goodnight Spot,” he hear Race mutter quietly.

“Night Racer.”

Spot lay there having trouble falling asleep. He still felt so unprepared for the rest of the week and was hoping they would be able to pull of their “relationship.” Sure, tonight had gone well, but the true test would be acting all lovey dove with Race throughout the week. 

As Spot’s mind began to wander, he heard Race’s breathing even out, indicating that he had fallen asleep. Spot listened to Race breath and slowly drifted off to sleep himself.


	6. Rudolph is the Superior Christmas Movie

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Race and Spot spend their first full day with Race's family, but tension between them builds as they struggle to act like a couple with each other.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys. Not gonna lie, this chapter wasn’t in the original plan for this story, but I felt it was necessary to develop the plot a little further: it’s a little bit of a filler today and a little bit of plot stuff. Because of this, it is a bit longer than my other chapters, but oh well. Also, I split the POV for this chapter, so that’s fun. I hope you enjoy!

Race’s POV:  
Race woke up and was immediately ready to fall back asleep. He was so comfortable and warm and he didn’t want to move ever again. He sighed contentedly and snuggled back into the pillow he was holding on to, and he slowly began to drift asleep again when he suddenly felt his pillow move.

“Wait, what?” Race thought, his mind still hazy from his sleep, “Pillows can’t move.”

Race opened his eyes to see that he was not holding onto a nice pillow, but was in fact latched onto his sleeping best friend. He was wrapped around Spot like a koala on a tree.

Race’s mind was instantly alert as he began to panic.

“Ok Race so you just woke up cuddling your best friend, no big deal, no big deal. It’s not like you’ve wanted to do this for God knows how long. Everything’s completely fine.”

Race knew that he couldn’t just wait there for Spot to wake up and realize what he’s been doing, so he detached himself from the other boy without waking him up, quite a feat if he was being honest, and got up to get ready for the day.

Race got dressed in a simple pair of black sweats paired with a gray long sleeve before making his way down to the kitchen in search of coffee and food.

When he got to the kitchen he was greeted by Melody and his mother, both leaning against the counter sipping their coffee.

“Hi Antonio, how’d you sleep? And where’s Spot?”

“I slept amazing,” Race responded as he reached for the coffee pot and poured himself a cup of coffee. He added a bunch of cream and sugar before taking a nice, long sip. “Spot’s still asleep upstairs. He let me nap on the car ride up so he drove the entire way here yesterday. The least I could do is let him sleep a little longer.”

He continued to talk to his mother and sister for a while, until he suddenly felt someone grab him from behind, interrupting himself with a little yelp of surprise. His mother and sister laughed at him. Race rolled his eyes at them: they clearly just watched Spot sneak up behind him yet neglected to warn him. So kind.

He heard a chuckle from behind him, and slowly relaxed into Spot’s arms, now wrapped tightly around his waist

“Is this ok?” He heard Spot whisper, feeling his breath on the back of his neck.

Race turned around in Spot’s arms so he was facing him, giving him a slight nod. “Good idea,” he whispered in response, “gotta get used to this somehow, right?”

Spot hummed in agreement. Both boys just stood there staring at each other, not really knowing where to go from here. They continued to stand there for a few more seconds, awkwardly holding each other close, until Race heard someone clear their throat, startling them both out of their intense gazes.

“Are you guys ok?” Melody asked them warily. “You’ve kinda just been staring at each other, and not in a lovey dovey way. It’s kinda weird.”

Both boys sprang apart, staring everywhere but each other. Race glanced sideways and saw Spot glancing at him as well. He knew that interaction was super awkward, and Spot was probably thinking the same thing. Race reached up to scratch the back of his neck.

“Heh, yeah sorry, we’re still kinda tired I guess.”

Race saw his mother and sister stare at them questioningly for a second longer before they both shrugged, resuming their conversation from earlier.

“Great they probably think we’re crazy or something,” Race thought glumly. Wanting to put that tension behind him, he quickly jumped into the conversation once more to distract himself.

The rest of the day passed without another incident. Race and Spot spent most of the day lounging around watching bad hallmark movies together while Melody and his mother were at work: it was coincidentally the last day of work for the both of them until they were off till the new year. Spot and Race took this opportunity to just hang out like they normally would without having to put on a show for Race’s family.

The day, however, seemed to fly by and Race soon heard keys in the door. He quickly moved towards Spot on the couch and threw his arm over his shoulder. 

Spot gave him a questioning look, but before Race could explain they heard a shout from the front of the house, “Hey Race, Me and Melody are home!”

Spot, now understanding Race’s actions, turned back to the tv and began to zone out watching whatever generic Christmas movie hallmark had on at the moment.

He heard shuffling behind him and turned his head to see Melody walking towards them. She plopped herself on the couch, sitting on the opposite side from Race and Spot.

“Ma’s gonna get dinner started and said she’d call us once food is ready. Whatcha guys watching?”

Race shrugged in response, not entirely sure of the answer himself. He and Spot had spent all day mindlessly watching these movies that he honestly couldn’t distinguish this from the others they had seen; they all just blurred together. Melody glanced at the screen and Race saw her face turn into one full of disgust.

“You guys are watching Hallmark movies? Seriously you guys these are garbage. You need to stick with the classics.” Her face lit up suddenly, “After dinner, we’re gonna all watch a movie together. We can watch a REAL Christmas movie then.”

Race turned to Spot, and saw him give a noncommittal shrug in response. He turned back to Melody, “Sure, sounds good.”

Before anything else could be said, they heard Maria shout from the kitchen, “Kids, dinner is ready!”

They all got up, setting the table while Race’s mother brought the dishes out. Once everything was set, they all sat down to eat, quietly exchanging anecdotes about their day.

* * *

Spot’s POV:  
After everyone was finished eating and all the dishes were cleaned up, the four moved to the living room to watch a “real” Christmas movie, as Melody ad phrased it. Spot plopped down onto the couch and he sat and watched Race and Melody decide on what movie to watch. Eventually he noticed their discussion getting a little heated.

“Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer is clearly the superior choice here,” he heard Race shout animatedly. “It’s the ultimate underdog story and sends a great message to people everywhere on how to treat others.”

Melody scoffed, “Of course you would think that. Frosty the snowman is obviously the superior Christmas movie because it is a heart-warming story about viewing things from multiple people’s perspectives and learning to forgive. That is clearly superior to a story about some stupid reindeer.”

Spot heard Race gasp dramatically. “How dare you say that about Rudolph! You’re no better than all the other reindeer who bullied him!” 

They continued to bicker until Spot finally got up, grabbed the Rudolph DVD from Race, and threw it into the DVD player. “You’re both acting like children. It’s just a movie.”

Melody groaned, “That’s so unfair! You only picked Rudolph because your boyfriend wanted to watch it.”

Spot gave her a smirk and grabbed Race’s arm as they made their way back to the couch, both plopping down on opposite sides of the couch as they usually do; they both like to lean on the armrest. Spot noticed Melody give them a weird look as she made her way to the couch.

“Stop hogging the couch you two,” she said shoving Race towards Spot, “Go sit and cuddle with your boyfriend.” She sat where Race had been previously, Maria joining her a minute later. Race slowly moved to sit with Spot, gently leaning against his side. Race looked over at him and giving him a questioning look as if to ask, “is this ok?”.

Spot gave Race a small nod of assurance to let Race know that he was comfortable with their position. They were barely touching, but this was definitely closer than what they were used to, and Spot appreciated that Race was looking out for him. Even though they both were fine with where they were at right now, the boys were still tense, not used to acting like boyfriends. Spot noticed this awkwardness right away, but chose to ignore it in favor of watching the movie.

Race’s family however, also seemed to realize the awkwardness and hesitancy between the two boys, as he saw them shoot weird glances their way throughout the movie out of the corner of his eye. Spot tried to ignore this and continued to watch the movie.

About halfway through the movie, Spot was no longer able to take their weird stares anymore. He stood up faking a yawn and stretching his arms above his head. “I think I’m gonna head to bed. That long day of driving is finally getting to me.”

Race jumped up quickly, “I’ll join you! I’m getting pretty tired too.”

Melody scoffed, “Oh come on, we have to watch the movie you want and you’re not even gonna finish it? What a waste of time.”

“Melody Higgins!” He heard Maria shout in protest. “Those boys have had a long day, leave them alone.” She turned to the boys, “Don’t worry about her, she’s gets grumpy when she’s tired. You two have a good night.”

“Goodnight,” Melody grumbled, embarrassed after being told off by her mother in front of the boys.

Spot and Race wished them both a goodnight and made their way upstairs to Race’s room. Race moved towards his closet to change into his pajamas (a pair of sweatpants and an oversized t-shirt, and Spot moved to the bathroom to change. After getting ready for bed, both boys sat on Race’s bed, awkwardness creeping up between them.

The tension in the room could be cut with a knife.

Spot fell back onto the bed with a groan, “Ugh, this is so stupid. Did you see the looks your family kept giving us when we were cuddling on the couch? It was so awkward. And after incident at breakfast this morning? Melody definitely thought we were crazy. They clearly think something’s up between us. There’s no way they’re gonna believe we’re dating if we keep acting like that.”

“I know, I know, I was acting strange during the movie, I’m sorry. And I know you tried to help this morning, I just didn’t know how to respond without being able to kiss you or anything like that. I knew going into this that I would have to be super affectionate with you, but I just didn’t know how to and didn’t want to make it awkward, which I ended up doing any way.”

“No, Race, it wasn’t just your fault. I should have said something and told you it was ok to be more affectionate. I just have to get used to being affectionate with you.”

They both sat in silence, contemplating what Spot would consider was a disaster of a night. He felt so awkward cuddling - if you could even call it that - on the couch with Race tonight. He wanted to get closer and act like a couple to really sell their story, but his feelings for Race made him hesitate; he didn’t want to take advantage of Race and use this weekend to treat him like he really wanted to when he knew things would have to go back to normal when the week is over.

They had to do something about their situation, and fast, or else their plan would never work.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Only for fanfiction would I be googling “what’s the moral behind Frosty the snowman” in the middle of May. Also get ready, cause next chapter is gonna be super exciting.


	7. Practice Makes Perfect

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Race comes up with a solution to their problem.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh boy, here we go folks. This is literally the scene that I have been planning since the beginning. Ahhhh, I hope you guys like it!

Spot’s POV:  
They had to do something about their situation, and fast, or else their plan would never work.

He heard Race speak up, “Spot . . . I may have a solution for our problem, but it’s very stupid. Hear me out, first, before you disagree.”

Spot turned to Race with a smirk, “Hmmm, where have I heard that before?” Race punched him lightly in the arm.

“C’mon Spotty, I’m serious,” he whined. “Please just hear me out.”

“Ok, ok, what’s your amazing solution?”

“I think we should practice being affectionate with each other.” Race said timidly.

“Practice being affectionate? What do you mean, Racer?”

“We need to get used to acting like a couple, right?” Spot nodded silently in response. “So we do just that: act like a couple, right here, right now. We can practice cuddling tonight,” Race suddenly averted his gaze from Spot’s, “and practice kissing and stuff too. That way we’ll be comfortable enough to do that in front of my family,” he finished off lamely. Race wouldn’t look him in the eye, clearly feeling awkward about what he just proposed.

Spot was confused, and also nervous. He didn’t think he would be able to handle getting closer to Race because of his crush. What if he did something stupid and revealed his true feelings for Race in the process? He knew this was a possibility when he agreed to this weird plan, but he didn’t think they would actually get to this point. Logically speaking, he knew this was the most obvious solution to their predicament, but he wasn’t sure he could go through with it. “No,” he thought, “I love Race, but this’ll just hurt me too much.”

“Ok, let’s do it, Race.” 

Spot screamed at himself internally, “Shit, why did I just say that?!?” Apparently his brain won over his heart in this situation, and it had a mouth of it’s own. Deep down, though, he knew he would do anything for Race, even traveling to the ends of the earth for him if it meant making him happy. If this is what Race wanted, he would do it.

Race’s head shot up and he looked surprised, “Really? I honestly didn’t think you would agree to that.”

Spot sighed, “Honestly I didn’t think I would either, but you’re right,” he told the other boy reluctantly. He tried to play off his nervousness. 

“Besides,” he joked “It’s honestly surprising that we’ve never kissed before now. It was bound to happen eventually.” They both chuckled awkwardly.

It really was strange that they had never kissed before, even if their feelings for each other have always been strictly platonic (up until recently at least, but did pining for your best friend really count as anything but pathetic?). They had been friends all throughout high school, having met in freshmen year where they instantly connected. Their group of friends was also notorious for playing party games like truth or dare and spin the bottle, so it is actually a miracle that they’ve never had to kiss before when putting up with their friends antics.

Race spoke nervously, “So . . . you actually wanna do this? You’re positive you’re ok with me kissing you?”

Spot nodded, finally meeting Race’s gaze. He could see the doubt in his eyes, and heard Race take in a quick, shaky breath.

“Ok, so, uh, I’m gonna kiss you now.”

Spot could see Race hesitating, and Spot simply sat there waiting for him to make the first move. The anticipation was killing him, but Race looked even more nervous that he felt so he didn’t want to just spring a kiss on him. They stared at each other for what for what felt like years. 

Finally, Race began to slowly lean in, and Spot leaned in to meet him halfway. They quickly pecked their lips together before both springing apart, both turning bright red. Spot’s mind was racing. He had wanted to kiss Race for so long and now he finally had the opportunity. “That kiss was so pathetic,” he thought. There’s no way his family would believe they were dating if they had to witness that, and he said so to Race.

“I know,” he responded, agitated, “It’s just weird kissing you. You’re my best friend.”

Spot rolled his eyes, at Race, “Dude, this is never gonna work unless we commit to it. We gotta do this for real.”

“You’re right, you’re right. Ok, round two.” Race chuckled awkwardly. 

Spot could feel his nerves coming back to him full force in anticipation of what was going to happen next, not fully ready to accept he would get to kiss his crush again. He knew they had technically already kissed once, so his nerves should have disappeared, but this next kiss really needed to count if their plan was gonna work.

They stared at each other once again, and this time Spot took the lead and began to lean in first. He hesitantly reached his hand out to delicately rest his palm on Race’s face and pulled him closer. He closed his eyes as Race’s lips met his. This kiss was definitely better than their first; their lips met stiffly before they both began to move slowly against each other, getting used to actually kissing one another. The kiss was gentle and sweet, and Spot felt sparks shoot through his entire body. Spot could feel his heart beating a mile a minute as they kissed slowly for a few more seconds before slowly beginning to pull away from each other.

They looked at each other awkwardly, Spot’s hand still gently resting against Race’s face. Spot, realizing that he was still holding on to Race, quickly pulled his hand away and looked down at his lap.

He cleared his throat, “So, uh, you think that’ll be believable enough for you family?”

“Yeah, definitely. It’s not like we need to get too intense about it: I’m not about to start making out with someone in front of my family,” Race said, shuddering at the thought of his family watching him like that. 

“Cool, cool,” Spot responded, heart still racing from their kiss. He was not entirely sure what to do now.

“So, uh, I’m getting pretty tired,” Race said yawning. “You ready to go to bed?”

Spot nodded, and they both began to lay down like they had the night before - on their sides and as far apart as possible - and Spot thought he was off the hook for the night; he could finally lay down and relax and not have to worry about acting all romantic with Race.

He had thought too soon however, and he nearly groaned when he heard Race speak up from behind him. 

“Hey Spot?”

“Yes Race.”

“I know I mentioned it earlier before, ya know, we uh-” Race stuttered. He cleared his throat, “Anyway, I think we should maybe practice cuddling tonight as well, if that’s alright with you. I figure that’s what we’re gonna be doing more of in front of my family if we’re just hanging around the house, so I think we should get comfortable doing that too.”

Spot knew he was right, once again, and was too tired to argue against it, so he reluctantly agreed.

“Ok, great,” he heard Race say and felt him shift on the bed. Spot suddenly tensed up as he felt Race’s arms gently wrap around his stomach. Race was practically spooning him at this point and Spot’s mind was racing, trying not to think about their close proximity. 

“Ugh. Race, how come you get to be the big spoon?” He grumbled.

“Aw Spotty,” he heard Race respond teasingly, “You know you love being the little spoon. Your tiny frame could never fit around me anyway.”

“Yeah, I just love it,” Spot said sarcastically, rolling his eyes. Despite his outward reluctance, he did love it, he thought to himself. Of course he would never tell Race that; he would never be able to live that one down. Plus, he truly loved Race and if he got to experience this for even a week before they went back to acting strictly as friends, he wasn’t going to ruin it by letting his stupid feelings get in the way.

Race continued to get situated behind Spot before finally settling down. His arms were wrapped gently around Spot’s stomach and Spot could feel Race’s chin pressing lightly against the nape of his neck. Their legs were intertwined.

“Is this ok?” Spot heard Race ask quietly. He could feel Race’s warm breath against the back of his neck and he tried not to shudder. Once again, his heart was going crazy, and he knew he wouldn’t be able to respond with a coherent sentence, so he simply nodded his assurance to Race.

“Goodnight Spot.”

“Goodnight Race.”

With that, both boys finally closed their eyes, and soon fell asleep intertwined with each other.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah so I’ve never kissed anyone before, so I really hope that wasn’t too cringey or awkward. I kinda just based my writing off of stuff that I’ve read in other fics and hoped for the best. Nonetheless, I hope you guys enjoyed it!


	8. Mistletoe

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Higgins family (and Spot) decorate for Christmas

Race’s POV:  
Race was woken up once again by something moving next to him. He quietly groaned, annoyed at being brought out of his peaceful sleep. He couldn’t remember the last time he slept that good, and he wasn’t about to get up anytime soon. The figure next to him shifted again, disturbing him even further, and he finally opened his eyes to glare at the boy next to him.

Spot seemed to have just woken up himself and was trying - and failing - to unwrap Race’s arms from around him so he could get up without waking him up. Race instantly blushed as memories from last nice raced through his mind. He quickly pulled back his arms, freeing Spot from his grasp.

“Sorry Spot,” he said sheepishly, “didn’t mean to smother you like that.”

Spot turned to Race, “Oh, mornin’ Race. Did I wake you?” Race watched as Spot stood up and stretched his arms over his head, and Race totally didn’t let his eyes stray to the small sliver of skin revealed as Spot’s shirt rode up. Nope, he didn’t see a thing.

“Eh, it’s ok,” he replied with a shrug. “I should probably get up anyway.”

Race stayed lying on the bed for a few more minutes as Spot moved around the room getting ready for the day before finally joining him. They both got ready in silence, and Race couldn’t help that feel something had shifted between them after last night. It wasn’t necessarily awkward, he thought, just unusual. 

About ten minutes later they were making their way down to breakfast together. They quickly made breakfast - Race was in charge of coffee and Spot was in charge of toast - before sitting down at the dining room table to eat together. It was peacefully silent.

That silence, to Race’s dismay, was abruptly broken about 2 minutes later when Melody came barging into the room, arms full of boxes. She was soon followed by Maria, who was also carrying a few boxes.

“Oh good, you boys are awake,” his mother said. “As I’m sure you’ve noticed, the house is severely lacking in the decoration department. I wanted to wait for you boys to get here so we could all decorate together, and it’s finally decorating day boys. Today is December 20th, and we’ve only got five days till Christmas, so hurry and finish you’re breakfast so we can get started and make the most of it.”

Melody slammed the boxes she was carrying down on the table, making Spot and Race jump. 

“Get a move on boys. I’ve been waiting weeks for this and I refuse to wait any longer.” She was practically squealing with excitement, acting like a kid in a candy store, despite being 17.

Race turned to Spot and rolled his eyes at his sister’s enthusiasm. How someone could be so awake at - he looked at the clock - 8:30 in the morning was beyond him. They quickly finished up their food and cleaned up before joining his family in the living room.

Melody instantly took charge with decorating. “Alright boys, first things first,” she said as she dug through one of the boxes before finding what she was looking for, “we have to get into the Christmas spirit.”

Race watched as his sister pulled a bluetooth speaker from the box. She connected her phone and pulled up some random Christmas playlist on Spotify before setting it aside. She returned to the box and began to pull out an assortment of hats and headbands: there were a couple Santa hats and headbands with elf ears and reindeer antlers.

“Alright, everybody gets a hat,” she said as she began to pass them out. She gave herself and her mother a Santa hat, and handed the hat with elf ears to Race and the one with antlers to Spot. The Higgins all threw on their hats quickly, but Race saw Spot simply glare at the hat in his hand.

“I am not wearing this ugly thing,” Spot said, disgust all over his face. 

Race turned to Spot and gasped in outrage. “But Spot you have to, it’s tradition! We always wear these while decorating. Please Spot . . . do it for me?” He turned to his grumpy friend and gave him the best puppy dog eyes and pouty face he could.

“Don’t look at me like that,” Spot said. Race ignored him and kept staring at him, and for minutes Spot simply glared back, determination in his eyes. Finally, Race saw Spot’s resolve break and his glare turned into a look of adoration. 

“Why is he looking at me like that?” Race thought. Before he could think about it too much, he heard spot let out a loud sigh.

“Alright, alright, I’ll wear the damn hat,” he shouted as he reluctantly put the headband on. “The things I do for you Higgins.”

Race’s eyes lit up and he didn’t think he could smile any wider. Race thought he looked adorable with the cute little reindeer antlers, and he was glad he was able to convince Spot to wear it. 

Race quickly pounced on Spot, giving him a quick kiss on the cheek before pulling him into a massive bear hug.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you!” He shouted. He release Spot from the hug. “See Spotty, I knew you were a softie deep down inside. Plus you look adorable in that,” he added with a playful wink.

“Aw, shaddup,” he heard Spot grumble in response. Spot’s face was bright red, and Race thought his probably looked the same: he didn’t mean to kiss Spot, even if it was just on the cheek, he was just so happy and got caught up in the moment. Both boys just stared at each other, lost in their own little world.

Race heard giggling coming from nearby and was quickly brought back to what was going on around him: right, they were supposed to be decorating.

Melody looked at the two, snickering, “Ok, now that that’s settled, let’s get to work! Race and Spot, you two can work on the tree, mom and I will start working on the rest of the living room.”

Race grabbed the box filled with tree decorations before carrying it over to the corner of the room where the tree was. His family picked it out early this year because they wanted to house to smell like the tree, so they already had it set up, which was the hard part in Race’s opinion. 

Spot and Race began to unpack all kinds of decorations from the box: strings of lights, garland, tinsel, and all kinds of ornaments. Race grabbed a string of white lights and they got to work. 

Once the lights were done, Race grabbed some tinsel and Spot grabbed some ornaments. They began to cover the tree with decorations, goofing off and singing along to the Christmas music they had on. By the time they were done the tree barely had an inch of space that wasn’t covered by some sort of ornament.

While Spot’s back was turned, Race grabbed a handful of tinsel and snuck up on him, swiftly covering the boy with the shiny stuff. Spot quickly realized what was happening and made an attempt to stop the other boy, however it was too late. He was covered head to toe in the shiny stuff, and it made Spot sparkle, a very different look from his usual, dark attire. Race couldn’t help but laugh at his friend.

“Ugh, Race,” Spot yelled as he looked down at himself, “I’m never gonna get all of this off; I’ll be wearing it for weeks.” Spot quickly reached up to his hair and tried to pull some of the tinsel off, but it clung to him.

“C’mon Spotty, we all need a little sparkle in our life, and you were severely lacking in that department,” Race replied giggling. “I was just doing you a favor.”

Spot snorted, but gave up trying to pry off all the tinsel, though he had already gotten most of it off. They continued tout the final touches on the tree, and eventually moved on to help his Ma and sister decorate the rest of the living room.

Race couldn’t remember the last time he had been this happy. Sure, he loved college, but it was starting to get stressful and he was glad he was finally on break and was able to spend Christmas with his family and his best friend. 

“Hey Race, Spot could you help me with something?” He heard his Ma call from the other side of the room.

“Sure Ma. What do you need?”

“I left a box of decorations over their by the doorway. Would you go get it for me? It’s a bit heavy so you’ll both need to get it.”

If his Ma was able to carry the box all the way from storage in the back room of their house, why would she need them to carry it a few more feet? He shrugged, not wanting to question his mother, and they both walked over to where she said the box was.

Race looked at Spot confused. There was no box there. They both looked all around the door and even peered into the other room to see if it had simply been misplaced when he heard giggling coming from the living room.

Spot and Race turned to see Melody and his Ma snickering at their confused faces.

“What’s so funny guys?” Race asked, annoyed.

Melody rolled her eyes, “Look up,” she said as she pointed above their heads.

Spot and Race slowly raised their heads to stare at the doorway above them. Race instantly spotted what Melody was referring to: someone had hung up mistletoe.

Crap. Race looked at Spot with wide eyes, and Spot looked at him the same. They both blushed bright red. Race quickly averted his gaze and turned to his family, who had clearly set him up.

Race scowled, “Seriously guys, you had to set us up under the mistletoe? Don’t you think it’s kinda creepy that you organized this just to watch me kiss my boyfriend?”

He tried to stall as his nerves rose at the prospect of kissing Spot again. He knew they had kissed previously with their practice, but he didn’t think he would end up kissing Spot again like this.

“Aw, are you nervous Race?” Melody asked teasingly. “I didn’t think you would be scared to kiss your own boyfriend of all people.”

That struck a nerve with Race: he never backed down from a challenge and that definitely sounded like one to him. 

Race quickly turned to Spot and gave him a questioning look, nonverbally asking him for the go ahead. Spot gave him a small nod to confirm that it was ok. Race released a short breath. This is what they practiced for, after all.

They slowly stepped closer and both leaned in until they were kissing once again. They kissed slowly and softly like they had the night before and Race tentatively reached out to grab Spot by the waist and pull him closer, deepening their kiss ever so slightly. Spot’s arms instinctively reached up to wrap around Race’s neck and Race felt his heart beat racing at their closeness. They continued to kiss, and Race became completely lost in the feeling of Spot. 

“Ok, ok, we get it: you’re gross and in love. Please, for the love of God, stop before I have to wash my eyes out with bleach,” Race heard Melody shout right as their kiss became a. Bit too intense. They instantly sprung apart as they were brought back to reality. They were both flushed red and panting slightly. Race couldn’t help but think that Spot looked super attractive like that. 

“Nope, not gonna think about that right now,” he thought as his blush became even more red. “I can’t think like that about my best friend, especially not with my family in the room.”

“Alright Melody, stop teasing,” Maria said scolding his sister, but Race saw the twinkle in his mother’s eye and knew that she didn’t really mean it. She looked happy, probably just excited that he had finally gotten a boyfriend, and he couldn’t help but feel guilty for lying to her. Even if it was a lie, at least she’s happy, he thought.

“Alright boys,” his mother spoke again, authority filling her voice, “we still have a lot of decorating to get done, so let’s get back to it!”

With that, they all went back to decorating the house. They spent most of the day decorating and messing around, and Race couldn’t believe that by the time they had finished it was getting dark outside. They all sat down for dinner together and quickly retreated to their respective rooms, surprisingly exhausted from their long day of decorating. Spot and Race quickly got ready for bed before collapsing against each other on the bed, and they were out within minutes.

*****

Race and Spot both woke up late the next day; they slept as long as they could after their busy day yesterday. They spent most of they day lounging around and being lazy, a complete contrast to the day before. Race’s family joined the boys in the living room by the fire after breakfast, and they all spent the day watching whatever Christmas movies they could find on tv (except for Hallmark movies: Melody would not let anyone even think about watching one of those garbage movies).

Race spent most of the day cuddled up with Spot on the couch, and he was content. It was a nice and lazy day, and it was the first time they were able to relax since they had arrived at his family’s house. Yeah they still had to act all close and lovey dove, but they just got the day to hang out together like they normally would, which is all he could ask for.

After spending most of the day on the couch, they all went to bed pretty early, and Race fell asleep wrapped around Spot once again, extremely happy from the day they had, and looking forward to the next few days, and ultimately Christmas.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Somehow I think every chapter just keeps getting longer and longer. Am I complaining? Not really, but this story is definitely way longer than I was originally planning. That’s pretty cool. Thank you for everyone who has left kudos or comments so far. I probably wouldn’t have as much fun writing this without that to motivate me, so I’m glad you guys are enjoying this as much as I am. Also, how was that short 1 day summary at the end? I’m trying to move the story along a little and hope that wasn’t too choppy or fast, because I didn’t want to do just a straight up time jump.


	9. Ice Skating

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The group decided to go ice skating, which sounds great in theory, except Spot doesn't know how.

Spot’s POV:  
“Ugh guys I’m so bored,” Spot heard Melody groan as they all lounged on the couch,” Can we please do something else?” It was nearly noon, and so far the and Race’s family had spent most of their day like they had yesterday: sitting on the couch watching tv.

“What do you have in mind, dear?” Race’s mother asked.

“I don’t know, I hadn’t thought this far ahead. Give me a minute to think of something.” They all sat in silence for a few minutes before she suddenly cried out, “I’ve got it! I heard from Stephanie, one of the girls who works at the bakery with me, that a new skating rink had just opened in town; we should go ice skating!”

Spot watched as Race’s eyes lit up at the suggestion and fell slightly more in love with him: the way his face lit up made him seem so young and carefree, and it was simply adorable.

“Oh my god Mel, that’s an amazing idea!” He sharply turned to look at Spot and Maria, and gave them big puppy dog eyes, “Please, please, please, can we go? I haven’t been skating in so long and it’ll be so fun!”

“Oh please,” Melody scoffed, “You just want to go skating because you know you’re good at it and want to show off in front of your boyfriend.” Spot blushed, and saw Race stick his tongue out teasingly at his sister.

Spot felt a slight pang of dread spread through him: He had never skated and had no desire to try it, especially since he didn’t want to make a fool of himself in front of Race, but Race looked so excited that he pushed away his nerves and agreed to go. Maria also thought Melody’s idea was great, and she agreed as well.

As soon as everyone was on board, they all ran to their rooms to get dressed. They all got dressed in their warmest clothes as quickly as possible, being sure to grab some gloves and scarves, and were soon all cramming into Maria’s tiny car as they sped off to the rink.

They had pulled up directions online, and were parking the car within 10 minutes of leaving the house. Race sprang out of the car, and Spot and the rest of his family followed close behind.

Spot couldn’t help but fall slightly behind as they made their way inside, payed, and grabbed their rental skates. His nerves from earlier had returned, and he wasn’t sure how to deal with his aversion to skating without disappointing Race, so he simply stayed silent as they laced up their skates and made their way to the rink.

He stood at the entrance gate to the rink as Race and his family effortlessly made their way onto the rink and began doing laps around it: Melody and Maria did slow circles, but Race outshined them both. Spot couldn’t keep his eyes off Race as he flawlessly spun in circles, skated backwards, and he even skated on one foot as his back leg came up behind him in an arabesque.

“Of course Race can skate amazingly,” he thought glumly, “I’m for sure going to make a fool of myself in front of him.”

Spot, still hesitant to get on the ice for the first time, stood off to the side for who knows how long just watching Race’s elegant form when suddenly the curly-haired boy appeared in front of him.

“Hey Spot, why are you just standing there? Are you feeling ok?”

Spot’s hands began to fidget as he looked at Race, “Uh, yeah, so I don’t actually know how to skate, and I’m kinda nervous about it.” Race stared at him for a second before bursting into laughter.

“Really, that’s what you’re worried about? It’s fine if you’ve never skated before: I’ll teach you.” Race gently grabbed Spot’s hands and helped him slowly step foot on the ice. Spot instantly began to wobble, not quite used to the slick ice underneath him, and he quickly let go of Race’s hands to reach for the wall.

Race was once again in front of him in an instant. “Woah, hey, don’t freak out Spotty, you’re perfectly stable. If it’ll make you feel better we can stay near the wall while you get the hang of it. Does that sound good?”

Spot nodded in response, and let out a short breath trying to relax. He would be fine with Race to support him, but he really didn’t want to fall and make a fool of himself, so he kept his hold on the wall.

“Here, give me your hands, I’ll help you along.” Spot looked at Race, still hesitant to let go, before Race sighed in exasperation, “Fine, how about you give me your left hand and you can leave your right hand on the wall, although you really don’t need it because I would never let you fall.” 

Spot slowly removed his left hand from the wall and grabbed on to Race’s right hand tightly. His right hand remained in a deathtrap on the wall.

“Ok, we’ll start with the basics. To move forward, keep your knees bent slightly to help you balance, and you want to just push off slightly from one foot to get going. To keep moving, just keep pushing off slightly, switching feet as you’re going like you would normally walk. You got that?”  
“Yeah, I think I’m ready to try it,” Spot said as he hesitantly gave a tiny push off of his right foot. He stumbled a little, not quite used to the movement, but Race caught him, smiling encouragingly.

“Good try, keep going.” Spot slowly pushed off again, this time managing not to stumble, and slowly switched feet. In no time, they were gliding - albeit slowly - around the edge of the rink. They continued like this in silence for a while; Race skating backwards as he helped Spot move along and Spot trying his hardest not to fall. Spot was amazed at how easy Race made it look, and was curious about how he learned to skate.

“Hey Race, how did you get so good at this?”

Race shrugged, “Eh, it kind of just happened over time. Ma used to take us all the time when we were younger, so I got loads of practice, and when I started dance I began to get better at all the technical stuff and a few tricks here and there with the skills I learned at class.” His eyes shone fondly, “I didn’t realize how much I missed it until now.”

Spot admired the content look on Race’s face and instantly knew that overcoming his aversion to skating was worth the risk of making a fool of himself. He saw how Race’s eyes lit up and would do anything to keep him happy, so he would always look like that: he looked carefree and beautiful.

After one more slow lap around the rink, Race stopped him and asked, “You wanna try moving away from the wall now?”

Spot had been slowly improving, and he thought he would finally be able to balance, at least with Race’s help, so he nodded and slowly let go off the wall with his right hand.

He quickly reached for Race, and held on tightly, now fully at the whim of the ice beneath him. They slowly continued to do what they had been doing before, but Race slowly lead him around and moving them farther and farther away from the wall. Eventually the started to speed up, not too much, but it was much faster than the snail’s pace they had been going before.

Spot smiled brightly at Race, “Hey, I think I’m getting the hang of it!” Race grinned back in response.

“Alright, since you’re such a pro ice skater now, how ‘bout you try it on your own,” he said as he swiftly removed himself from Spot’s grip, leaving him to balance all on his own, as he moved just out of Spot’s reach, which, to be fair, wasn’t very far due to Spot’s short arms.

Spot’s eyes widen in panic, but he quickly calms down and manages to skate around by himself - he’s not as fast as when they were together, but he was doing pretty good considering he had never skated before.  
Spot makes it a few more feet on his own, when suddenly he leans too far forward and is quickly tripping over the ice. Race speeds over and tries to catch and stabilize him, but Spot’s feet can’t find purchase on the ice. In a second he slips again and tumbles to the floor, dragging Race with him.

Spot lets out an ‘oof’ as his back hits the ice. Race lands on top of him, knocking the wind out of him.

Spot groans, “Ugh, Race, why are you so heavy?”

“Well, maybe if you weren’t so clumsy we wouldn’t have ended up like this in the first place,” Race teases him, chuckling slightly. Quickly Race’s giggles turn into full-blown laughter, and Spot can’t help but join in at the infectious sound. 

Spot couldn’t help but laugh even harder when he thought about how ridiculous they looked: here they were, two grown men laying on top of each other in the middle of an ice rink, cackling like hyenas.

Finally, their laughter began to subdue, but Race didn’t remove himself from on top of Spot; he just stared at him. Spot stared back, a confused look on his face, when suddenly Race was kissing him. Spot lay there with wide eyes full of shock until suddenly his brain caught up with him and he began to kiss Race back. It was a short and sweet kiss, similar to their first, but Spot once again feel butterflies shoot through his chest.

“Oh my god, you guys are so cute, although a bit clumsy if I do say so myself,” Melody squealed as she skated gracefully by. They boys instantly jumped apart - well, as much as they could with Race still lying on top of Spot - and their faces filled with blush. “Seriously Race, I expected better from you,” she added teasingly.

“Oh, shut up Mel,” Race said as he stood up, reaching his arm out to give Spot a hand. “If it weren’t for this fool,” he said pointing a finger at Spot, “we wouldn’t have ended up like that in the first place.”

“Whatever you say bro,” she said skating off and leaving them alone once more. Both boys stared awkwardly at each other, not quite sure what to say after what just happened. Spot decided to break the silence.

“Good thinking, Race.”

“Huh?”

“You know, kissing me in front of your sister to make our relationship seem more believable; it was a good idea.” Spot saw something flash through Race’s eyes - was that disappointment? - before it quickly disappeared and Race agreed with him. He couldn’t help but feel disappointed himself with how that kiss ended, however. He was so caught up in the moment that he almost had himself believing that Race kissed him because he wanted to, not to put on a show for his sister.

“Stupid,” he thought to himself, “You know Race doesn’t like you like that, so why get your hopes up?”

He hadn’t even seen - or heard - Melody approaching, but if Race kissed him he obviously had, and planned ahead to make them look more like a real couple.

They resumed skating as they had previously, and the rest of their afternoon went pretty smoothly: they had made it around the rink a lot more, and hadn’t fallen again, which Spot was pretty proud of considering his less-than-adequate iceskating ability.

However, as Spot lay in bed that night, once again wrapped in Race’s arms, he couldn’t help but reflect on the afternoon and his disappointment after his kiss with Race.

He knew he had loved Race for a while, but he didn’t really realize how far gone he was for the boy until this afternoon. Something about spending the day doing something Race loved and getting to see him happier than he’s been in a long time sparked a hidden flame in Spot’s chest, and it scared him to see how his feelings for Race seemed to be increasing rapidly.

He loved Race more than anything, and he wondered how he was going to deal with his emotions once the week was over, because he knew that he wouldn’t be able to ignore his feelings for much longer. With that, Spot slowly began to falling asleep, with this problem plaguing his mind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think this is one of my favorite chapters so far. It is a bit longer than usual, and took me a little while to get done, but I love how it turned out and how I got to explore a little more into Spot’s feeling about Race.


	10. The Perfect Gift

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Race and Spot go Christmas shopping

Spot’s POV:  
“Come on Race,” he let out impatiently, “You said we would leave ten minutes ago.” They boys were going shopping for each other’s Christmas gifts today. Yes, they did in fact realize that Christmas was just two short days away, but they neither of them had gotten presents for each other yet so they agreed to go over breakfast. 

They had agreed this year that because they were broke college students, they wouldn’t get each other anything too grand or expensive: they would just get little things that so they would still be able to exchange gifts and get in the giving spirit of Christmas. This was the reason for doing their shopping so last minute; they didn’t want the other ignoring their agreement and ordering ahead for something bigger or too expensive.

“Sorry Spot,” he heard Race say as he walked towards the door, wrapping his scarf around his neck, “I misplaced my scarf.”

“You do know we are going shopping in a mall, right?” He said rolling his eyes. “And the mall we are going to is indoors, which means you won’t even need it cause we’ll be inside.”

Race stared at him for a second. “Huh, didn’t think about that.” He instantly unwrapped the scarf from around his neck and hung it up on the hook by the door, and Spot instantly facepalmed. Ten minutes wasted looking for a stupid scarf, and now he’s not even gonna bring it.

“C’mon Spotty, what are you waiting for?” Race said as he reached for the door handle and winking playfully at him, “Let’s get a move on.”

And with that they were off to the mall. The mall nearby wasn’t very big, but it had a big enough variety of stores that they would be able to find anything they wanted for the other.

The parking lot of the mall was a mess: there were people everywhere trying to make any last minute purchases they needed, and they drove around for about ten minutes until they were finally able to find a spot.

“I say we get an hour to find something for each other, and then we can meet up at the food court for lunch and head home from there,” Race said as they made their way inside.

“Sounds good to me.”

“Alright Spotty, see you in an hour!” Race took off heading right from the entrance, so Spot went left.

Spot didn’t have any ideas for what to get Race, so he began to wander from store to store and hoped he could find something that would suit him. He probably spent nearly half an hour just wandering through clothing, music, and candy stores, but nothing seemed to be clicking for him, so he just kept wandering.

Finally, with about 15 minutes left, he was beginning to lose hope he would find a gift when he saw something out of the corner of his eye on a shop’s display window: It was a Rudolph the red nosed reindeer stuffed animal. 

He remembered how passionate Race was about that movie, and he knew it was the perfect gift: it wouldn’t be too expensive, and it would remind Race of something he loved and the time they got to spend together this break. He rushed inside to pay for the toy. 

He check his watch as the cashier bagged up his toy, “Shit!,” he thought, “paying must have taken longer than he expected, because he had less than five minutes to get to the food court where he would meet Race. He quickly left the store, and made it to the food court with one minute to spare. He began to look for Race when he heard someone call his name.

“Hey Spot, over here!” He turned and saw Race sitting at one of the small tables. He made his way over, and sat down in the chair opposite him.

“So, did ya get me anything good?” Race asked him, trying to peer into his bag. Spot slapped him on the arm.

“Don’t be nosy Racer,” he said rolling his eyes, “you only have to wait to more days. Don’t ruin the surprise.”

Race laughed, “Aw Spotty, you know I’m just messin’ with ya. Alright, you wanna get something to eat before heading out?”

“Sure,” spot said looking around at their options. “McDonalds?”

Race nodded. Spot took his order and went to get their food. They sat quietly as they ate, occasionally commenting on something strange or funny they had seen walking around the mall; last minute Christmas shopping could really drive some people crazy. Once they were finished, they grabbed their bags and drove home. Once they got back, they quickly headed to separate rooms to wrap their presents.

***

Race’s POV:  
He quickly stepped into his room - Melody had let Spot use her room to wrap his present - and grabbed the stack of papers he had been saving to use. Spot and Race had this tradition of wrapping their presents with newspapers, and he wasn’t about to break that tradition now.

Race looked back fondly at the start of this tradition as he began to wrap Spot’s present. They boys had just met in freshmen year, and were looking for a job to make a little bit of extra money. Problem was, no one wanted to hire a couple of 14 year olds, so they struggled to find a job. That is, until, they stumbled across The World’s newspaper distribution center. Their old boss, Joseph Pulitzer, had no problem hiring a couple of kids to get up early and go around the neighborhood selling papes every morning, so that’s what they did. Whatever they didn’t sell, they got to keep, although they lost some money over it. 

One Christmas, the boys decided to put their extra papers to good use, and they began to wrap each other’s presents with newspapers ever since: it was a nice little homage to the time they had spent together as newsies.

Race finished wrapping his present and went to the living room. His mother and sister were watching another movie, so he quickly snuck past them to put his present under the tree. He noticed another present that looked just like his was already under the tree: Spot had already finished, and it looked very neatly wrapped compared to Race’s gift, which wasn’t horrible, but did have a few crinkles and loose areas. Race never was great at wrapping gifts. 

“Oh cool, you’re finished too,” he heard from behind him. He spun around and saw Spot leaning in the doorway to the kitchen. “I was just gonna go get you. I’m making hot chocolate, do you want any?”

“Sure. You wanna join my family and watch a movie?” Spot nodded as he headed back into the kitchen to prepare their drinks, and Race jumped onto the couch, grabbed a blanket, and got settled to wait for Spot’s return with their hot chocolate.

Race sat contentedly snuggled up on the couch for a few minutes before someone stepped into his line of vision. He quickly lifted up the blanket to let Spot under, and Race instantly curled up into his side, grabbing the mug of cocoa from him.

They sat cuddling up against each other for the rest of the day. Race sighed happily as he snuggled up closer into Spot’s side; he could get used to spending all his lazy days with Spot like this. It felt so nice and relaxing to just stay like this for a while, even if it was just all for show.

Because he loved Spot. He really loved Spot, and he wanted to spend the rest of his life with him. It was so nice to have someone to be close with emotionally like he had with Spot; they were best friends, of course they knew everything about each other and were always their to help and support each other. But he wanted a relationship with him as well. He wanted to be able to come home from a long day of work and be able to just curl up with his best friend, and to be able to wholly love and be loved by someone.

Race sighed internally. He thought he would be fine fake dating Spot for a week, but having to act so much closer this week really made him realize how much he actually wanted something real from Spot. He knew he wouldn’t be able to hide his feelings for much longer, hell, he was barely managing as is: just the other day he had kissed Spot after their fall at the iceskating rink. He didn’t mean to kiss Spot, and he didn’t even do it for the sake of appearances. He just thought Spot looked so happy and carefree in that moment, and he couldn’t help himself.

“I have to tell him,” he thought, “but not till’ this week is over.” He wouldn’t want to ruin Christmas for Spot by confessing his feelings, and if Spot didn’t feel the same there would be no way to act like they were now after his feelings were out in the open.

He looked at Spot briefly and saw him focused intently on the movie they had been watching, and he turned his eyes back to the screen, but he couldn’t pay attention because of how much he was thinking about Spot.”

“That’s settled then,” he thought to himself, “I’ll have to confess after this week is over.”


	11. Christmas Eve

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The family spends all day honoring an old Higgins family tradition: making cookies.

Race’s POV:  
Race is instantly woken up as someone begins to blast “All I Want For Christmas is You” in his ear. He jumps, still holding on to Spot, who is also blinking his eyes wearily as he tries to comprehend what’s going on. He turns to the doorway and sees his sister doubled over with laughter and holding a speaker.

Race groans. He had stayed up all night overthinking about how he was going to confess his feelings to Spot, and he did not appreciate being woken up like this.

“Mel,” he sighed, “what could you possibly want so badly that you had to wake us up for?”

“It’s Christmas Eve Race, you should be more excited!” She said, practically shouting. “And because it’s Christmas Eve, we have to start making cookies!”

Ah yes, Race remembered: their family had a tradition of spending all of Christmas Eve baking cookies of all sorts and decorating gingerbread houses. It started when they were little and wanted to help their Ma make cookies for Santa, and it evolved from there to the point where it became a Higgins holiday tradition. This process took most of the day, which required them to wake up earlier than usual so they could get the job done.

Race groaned and reluctantly pulled himself out of bed to get dressed, and Spot did the same. They both got ready quickly, not wanting to get too dressed up because they knew they were gonna end up covered in flour and frosting, so it was best to just dress in something plain that they could wash later. 

They were greeted in the kitchen by Race’s mother and sister already hard at work making gingerbread dough with Christmas music softly playing in the background. 

“C’mon boys, stop waiting around,” his mother admonished as she mixed the dough, “These cookies aren’t gonna make themselves!”

They boys quickly grabbed aprons and got to work. They worked pretty well as a team: Melody and Maria worked to make the dough, and it was Spot and Race’s job to roll out the dough, cut them into shapes using their gingerbread cookie cutters, and lay them out on trays to be put in the oven.

They worked like this for hours, ending up with over 150 gingerbread men; the Higgins family took Christmas cookies seriously, and always ended up with an insane amount of cookies (some of which would be delivered to the neighbors later).

Because they had so many cookies to decorate, they didn’t get too detailed with the design; they simply drew a face and buttons or a scarf before moving on to the next cookie. 

Race sniggered as he finished up the design on one of cookies, and nudged Spot in the side playfully. “Look Spot, I made a gingerbread version of you!”

He proudly displayed his cookie to his best friend. Race had broken off part of the gingerbread man’s feet to make the gingerbread man super short, then had decorated it with black and red stripes to resemble one of Spot’s favorite shirts. To finish it off, he had drawn on a frowny face to match Spot’s grumpy, tough guy act.

“Making fun of my height again, I see. Find something more original to make fun of next time,” Spot said as he laughed and gave Race a playful shove, but Race could see a fond look in his eyes and knew that he secretly loved it.

After another few minutes of working, Race felt a nudge and turned to Spot. Now it was his turn to smirk as he displayed a cookie that looked just like Race. Spot had dressed up the gingerbread man in a simple blue shirt and black pants, but had outdone himself on the head. The gingerbread man now donned an insane amount of blonde curls and a goofy face, including a comical-looking cigar hanging out of its mouth.

“What’s with the cigar?” Race asked confused. 

Spot shrugged, “Remember when we watched Spiderman a while back?”

“Yeah . . .” Race responded slowly, not quite sure where Spot was going with this.

“Well there was this one scene where the daily bugle editor had this cigar and was waving it around all animated as he was speaking, right?” Spot said. Suddenly a memory was triggered in Race’s mind and his face lit up.

“Oh yeah! I spent the rest of the movie imitating his accent and waving around a fake cigar because I thought it was cheesy and obnoxious.” They both laughed at the memory of Race lounging across their couch with a pen hanging out of the side of his mouth and talking with a bad, overbearing tone of voice. Race had honestly forgotten about that until this moment, but immediately understood what Spot was getting at with the gingerbread man.

“How did you even remember that Spot? That was like, months ago.”

Spot shrugged and blushed slightly. He cleared his throat, “So, how many more cookies do we have to decorate?”

Race could tell that Spot was trying to change the subject, but let it slide, assuming Spot just didn’t have a good answer. 

Race scanned the table, “Looks like we only have about 20 left.” Spot nodded and they quickly got back to work, occasionally spicing up their generic design with goofy faces and accessories to try and make the other laugh. 

They finished decorating within five minutes: the family had been at it all day and were finally glad to be done. Decorating cookies was harder work than Race remembered, and his hand was cramping up after doing it all day. 

His Ma grinned at the group, clapping her hands together once to get the kids’ attention. “Alright, now it’s time to deliver some of these to the neighbors.”

Race groaned, “Aw C’mon Ma, we’ve been working for hours. Can we at least take a break first?”

“Antonio, if I know anything about you is that once you sit down you will never get back up, so no, you cannot have a break,” Race sighed, but his mother was right, so he might as well just go and get it over with.

“Alright, fine. Spot will go with me, and Melody can go with you.”

“Great! You and Spot take the houses across the street,” she said already packing up cookies into small containers for their neighbors. 

Spot and Race grabbed a couple packages of cookies each, and began their walk around the neighborhood. Race was hoping this would be quick, because he wanted to get back inside the warm house and relax, but that was not the case. Many of his neighbors had felt the need to stop and catch up with him and interrogate him about his life. Mrs. Anderson, the older woman who lived directly across from them, and their final stop, was one of these neighbors.

“Hi Mrs. Anderson,” Race greeted as she opened her door. Race saw her face light up with recognition.

“Oh Antonio, it’s been so long since I’ve last seen you? How are you? Are you enjoying college?” She bombarded him with questions, and his eyes widened as he tried to take it all in. Somehow, she talked faster than he did.

“I’m doing great, thanks for asking. I love college so far. The workload is a bit much, especially since I’m majoring in physics, but that was to be expected.”

“That sounds great,” she said. After bombarding him with a few more questions, she finally seemed to notice the other boy on her doorstep. “Oh, I’m sorry. I got so caught up I didn’t seem to notice you,” she said apologetically. She eyed Spot up and down. “Tony, who is this charming young lad?”

“This is my, uh, boyfriend, Spot,” Race blushed as he introduced him.

Spot reached out his hand for a handshake, but Mrs. Anderson grabbed his arm and pulled him into a tight hug, startling both him and Race.

“Did you know I grew up babysitting Race occasionally,” she said finally releasing Spot from her grip. “It’s just so crazy to see him all grown up, what with him being in college now with a nice boyfriend,” she said nearly tearing up. “Time really does fly past, and we’ve gotta take advantage of all the time we got. I’m glad you’re happy Race.”

Race flashed her a smile, but felt a pang shoot through his chest. Of course he is happy; he’s had a pretty good life and he was having an amazing time with Spot and his family during this break. But he could be happier. He knew he could be happier with Spot as his real boyfriend, instead of just parading him around for his family and his neighbors.

“Remember,” he thought to himself, “You’re gonna tell him at the end of break. He’s either going to reciprocate your feelings or not. Either way you tried, and that’s what matters.”

They continued to talk with Mrs. Anderson for a few more minutes, with those thoughts plaguing the back of Race’s mind, before politely saying goodbye and heading home.

Spot and Race made a beeline for the living room, and collapsed against each other on the couch, where Race’s mother and sister were already relaxing, the fire ablaze in the fireplace. 

“What took you guys so long,” Melody asked. “We got back around half an hour ago.”

Race groaned, “You know how Mrs. Anderson can be. She’s always interrogating us about our lives.” His sister nodded knowingly.

Race’s mother let out a huff of air, annoyed. “Antonio, don’t be so rude. Mrs. Anderson is a lovely woman, and you should be grateful for everything that woman has done for you, not complaining.”

Race heard Spot and Melody trying to keep in chuckles as his mother berated him, and he blushed bright red. He turned to his mother, “Sorry Ma,” he apologized sheepishly.

His mother’s eyes turned gentle, “It’s alright, honey, just don’t do it again,” she said, beginning to stand up. “I’m gonna make cocoa and grab some of the cookies from earlier. Do you all want any?”

All three of them nodded eagerly, finally content to relax after a long day. After not too long, Race heard his mother come in and she began handing out cocoa and cookies.

They spent the rest of the night by the fire, chatting and stuffing themselves with sweets. It was around midnight when they finally decided to go to bed, after Race had been caught nodding off multiple times.

Spot stood up, pulling Race with him, and Race was dragged back to his room. They boys made quick work of getting ready for bed, and were soon cuddling against each other in bed.

“Huh,” Race thought to himself as he was once again wrapped around Spot, When did us cuddling begin to feel normal?”

It had been less than a week, and Race hadn’t fully realized how used to being affectionate with Spot was becoming, and he hoped that this wouldn’t have to end after the week was over. Race fell asleep thinking about Spot.


	12. Christmas and Confessions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's Christmas, but Spot begins to have something else on his mind.

Spot’s POV:  
Spot awoke frantically, someone shaking him urgently. He blinked his eyes wearily and looked around, trying to understand what is going on. He looked up and saw Race looming over him, hands still on his shoulders.

“Spot Spot Spot Spot Spot,” he heard Race shout excitedly, “You gotta get up. It’s Christmas!”

Spot groaned, and tried to roll over. Frankly, he was exhausted and did not appreciate being woken up in such a manner, even if it was Christmas

“Five more minutes,” he grumbled and shut his eyes again, but Race was having none of it and began shaking him once more.

“C’mon Spot, it’s Christmas! Don’t be such a lazy bum.”

Spot sighed, knowing he wouldn’t win this battle, and reluctantly got up, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.

Race smiled brightly at him for a second before grabbing his hand and pulling him out of the room. “Come on, we gotta open our presents,” he shouted as they raced down the hall towards the living room.

“Jeez, slow down a little,” Spot said as he stumbled. Even though he was so rudely woken up and nearly tripped running down the hallway, he couldn’t help but smile fondly at his best friend. He looked so childlike, and full of excitement, and it made Spot admire him even more. They didn’t get to just goof off and act like kids a lot anymore, so seeing Race so carefree really warmed his heart.

As they reach the living room they are greeted with warm smiles from Melody and Maria, who were already waiting patiently on the couch.

“Merry Christmas you two,” Maria said cheerfully, and the boys wished her a merry Christmas in return. “Alright, now that everyone is awake, I guess we can start opening presents. Tony, would you be a dear and pass everyone’s presents out?”

Spot watched as Race eagerly ran towards the tree and began handing out gifts to everyone. Most were for Race and Melody from Maria, and Spot was shocked when Race handed him a gift from Maria. He hadn’t expected to get anything other than his gift from Race, and was touched that Race’s family had thought to get him something.

He stared at the gift in his lap. “Maria, you didn’t have to get me anything,” he said, although grateful. “I didn’t even bring you anything.”

Maria waved him off. “Oh honey, don’t worry about it. You being here for Race is gift enough.”

Spot blushed and felt a wave emotion engulf him, nearly bringing tears to his eyes. He quickly brushed it off, and began to watch as Race opened one of his presents.

He turned to see Race opening a present from his sister, and he laughed as he opened the box. It was a shirt that said “I have the best sister in the world.”

“Thanks Mel,” Race said rolling his eyes at the gift, “I’ll be sure to wear it all the time.”

Race turned to face him. “Hey Spot, are you gonna open that, or are you just gonna sit there all day,” Race said pointing to the gift from Maria in his lap.

Spot stared at the present in his lap for a second before gently tearing into the wrapping paper. After getting all the wrapping paper off he tugged open the box to find a small little scrapbook sitting inside. 

Spot picked it up. It had a picture of him and Race together, taken sometime soon after they had met during their freshmen year. He began flipping through the pages, most of which were filled with pictures of Race and him throughout their years together; there were pictures of them simply hanging out around the house to pictures from school events such as prom and graduation. The last picture in the book was one taken the day they left foot college: they stood by the car with boxes in their hands and huge smiles on their faces.

He turned to Maria. “Thank you. I love it,” he said, beginning to get teary eyed for the second time that day.

“Oh honestly, it was nothing. I put that together last minute. I figured since you and Race were dating now you would want a copy of all those pictures together. I also left some blank pages in the back so you can add your own pictures to it later on.”

Spot was speechless. Spot’s family growing up wasn’t the greatest; his parents often neglected him and left him to his own devices, so he never truly had parents to look after him. Spot was speechless to see how easily the Higgins had accepted him into the family, and how kind and thoughtful they were.

“I want this,” he thought. “I want this to be real. I truly want to be a part of this family and be a family with Race.” With that thought, he decided he would tell Race at the end of the day how he felt. He couldn’t hold back his feelings any longer, and even if Race didn’t feel the same he just had to get it out. If he didn’t do it today, he may never get it out, and may never be able to be a part of an amazing family like the Higgins family.

“Hello, Earth to Spot,” Race said waving his hand in front of Spot’s face, breaking him out of his thoughts. “You good Spotty?”

Spot nodded, “Yeah sorry, just thinking.”

“Ok, now that you’re back to Earth we can finally open each other’s presents,” Race said excitedly. He quickly ran to the tree, grabbed their presents - which were very easy to tell apart due to the unique wrapping - and handed them out to their respective recipients. “Do you wanna open yours first?”

“Racer, you’re practically buzzing in your seat. You can open yours first.”

Spot saw Race’s eyes light up. “Thanks Spot! You’re the best,” he said already ripping into the newspaper. Spot had made sure to put the gift in a nice, big box so Race wouldn’t be able to guess what it was, and he watched in anticipation as Race threw off the lid of the box. He really hoped Race liked his gift.

Confusion crossed Race’s face for a second, probably because he only had a top view of the stuffed animal, before slowly reaching into the box. As he pulled the toy out of the box recognition replaced his confusion and his eyes lit up.

Spot released a sigh of relief as Race excitedly hugged Rudolph tightly to his chest; he liked it.

Race turned to Spot with a huge smile, “I love it Spot! I’m guessing me and Mel’s little movie argument inspired this?” He asked and Spot simply nodded. “Now I’ll always have something to remember this Christmas with you,” Race said, causing him to blush slightly. “Now you’ve gotta open your gift.”

Spot tore open the gift, a medium sized square box, and was shocked with what he saw inside: It was a small painting of the Brooklyn Bridge. All he could do was stare at it and look over the beautiful piece of art.

“Do you like it?” He heard Race ask tentatively. “I know you loved visiting the bridge growing up, and as soon as I saw it I knew I had to get it.”

He turned to look at Race, eyes watering slightly. Spot was always hesitant to share with others how his childhood was, but Race was one of the few people who he told about what he went through, and the escape from everyday life the bridge, and exploring the city as a whole, gave him. It was such a thoughtful gift, way better than what he got for Race, and was touched by how much thought Race must have put into it.  
“Thank you. I love it,” he said acting on impulse as he reached out for Race, hugging him tightly. Race hugged him back just as tight before slowly leaning back, but they continued to cling to each other, not fully letting go.

“Merry Christmas Spotty.”

“Merry Christmas Racer.”

They continued to stay wrapped up with each other while Maria and Melody finished opening their gifts - Race wouldn’t let go of the stuffed Rudolph he had given him - and they stayed that way for the rest of the day, only breaking apart for dinner.

Spot continued to cling to Race during dinner, continuously leaning into him or brushing his hand against Race’s as it rested on the table. He felt a little silly about being so forward with his affection after his strong hesitation for that at the beginning of the week, but this could be the last time he could act this way before he told Race about his feelings, so he wanted to cherish the moment while it lasted as he feared for the worst.

Race kept sending him weird, but reassuring glances throughout their meal, and he went along with it, probably thinking he was just keeping up their act of a lovey-dovey couple on their first Christmas together.

“And with any luck, it won’t be our last,” Spot thought to himself.

After dinner they all sat curled up by the fire in the living room, simply enjoying each other’s company, and before Spot knew it they were all heading to bed.

Spot began to get nervous as he and Race made their way to Race’s room and got ready for bed.  
After they got in their pajamas they sat on the bed for a while and talked, but Spot was so distracted that he ended up missing a lot of what Race was telling him. After a while, Race began to notice something was off with him.

“Hey Spot, are you feeling alright? You seem a little out of it.”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” he said, shaking his head slightly, trying to slow down his racing thoughts. “Just got a lot on my mind.”

“Are you sure? You look a little pale. You know you can talk to me right? I’m your best friend.”

“This is it,” Spot thought to himself. “You’ve got to tell him now.”

He turned to look at Race, taking in a slow, deep breath before just blurting out, “But that’s just it. You’re only my best friend.”

Race looked confused, “I’m sorry, I’m not following.”

Spot took another deep breath. “What I’m trying to say is, I don’t want to just be your best friend. I want something more. I want to be your boyfriend.”

“What?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It finally happened, Spot finally confessed, and it’s about time too! Sorry to leave a little cliffhanger there, but I just couldn’t resist. I hope you guys liked the chapter, and I can’t wait for you to see what happens next!


	13. I love you, you idiot

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Spot and Race come clean about their feelings for each other

Race’s POV:  
Race was shocked, and all he could get out was a timid, “What?”

Spot rolled his eyes at Race’s cluelessness. “I love you, Tony. I’ve loved you for a long time, and I want to be your boyfriend, not just your best friend. This week has made me realize how strong my feelings for you are, and even if you don’t feel the same way I just had to get it out there, because I couldn’t hold my feelings inside any longer.”

Race was shocked at what he just heard.

“Wait, wait, wait, let me get this straight: you’re in love with me?”

“Yes.”

“And you want to date me for real?”

Spot sighed impatiently, “Yes Race, what about that is hard to understand?”

Race finally began to process what Spot was trying to tell him: his crush liked him back! A huge smile broke out on Race’s face. He slowly began to laugh, not being able to contain his joy about what he just heard. His laughter grew as he realized that they had probably both liked each other for a while, but were simply too oblivious to ignore it. They were both so stupid.

Spot looked confused by Race’s laughter, but that confusion quickly turned to a look of rejection. “Listen Race, I know you don’t feel the same, and I can respect that, but c’mon, laughing at me?” Spot said getting more angry by the second. "I just spilled my guts out to you and you can’t even form a coherent response. Is this all just a big joke to you?” He asked, and Race saw how heartbroken and dejected he looked.

Race’s eyes widened, not realizing how his reaction could have been misinterpreted. “No, no, no, oh my god, no,” he blurted out quickly, trying to remedy the situation. “Spot, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to make fun of you by laughing, I just couldn’t help myself; this situation is a bit ridiculous. We really are idiots for not figuring it out sooner.”

Spot did not look any less hurt or confused by that, and Race backtracked once again. He was still trying to process the fact that his crush just told him he loved him, and the shock and happiness were preventing him from thinking properly.

“Ugh, I’m sorry Spot, my brain is still trying to fully process what you just told me. I didn’t really know how to react when my crush just told me that they liked me back, so I panicked and laughed out of instinct.

It was Spot’s turn to look confused. “Wait, you have a crush on me?”

Race rolled his eyes in exasperation, “Yes, you idiot! I’ve been in love with you forever, but this week really solidified that for me. I was honestly planning on telling you after the week was over, because I just couldn’t take it any longer, so I guess you made my job a lot easier,” Race said, breaking into a huge smile.

Race watched as realization dawned across Spot’s face, and he began to smile even bigger than Race. Race loved that smile, and hoped to see it a lot more often now that they had cleared the air between them.

Spot shook his head in disbelief, “Wait, so you’re saying that we’ve both been pining after each other, this whole time and didn’t realize it. No wonder you were laughing: we really are idiots.”

They both began laughing at their own stupidity, and because of the extreme happiness flowing through them right now. Eventually their laughter died down, and they were left staring at each other, unsure what to do now that they had confessed their feelings to each other.

Race heard Spot clear his throat, “Race can I ask you a question?”

“Sure Spotty.”

Race watched as Spot nervously drummed his fingers against his leg, “Can I kiss you?” 

A wide grin spread across Race’s face. “I thought you’d never ask,” he said leaning in.

Race felt fireworks, as cheesy as it was, as their lips met. Obviously this wasn’t their first kiss, and not the first time he felt this with Spot, but there was something amazing about knowing that he would be able to do this whenever he wanted. He no longer had to hide his feelings, and he got to be with the most amazing person he knew.

Race could feel himself grinning as he kissed Spot, unable to contain his happiness. Race felt Spot reach up and run his hands through his curly blonde hair, pulling Race deeper into their kiss. Race melted into Spot’s grip, kissing him back eagerly. Race didn’t know how long they had been kissing but soon they were breaking apart, breathing heavily.

After they pulled apart they sat with their foreheads resting against each others, and Race couldn’t keep the grin off of his face. Race, still not fully believing that this is anything but a dream, wanted to stay as close to Spot as he could, and as they laid down for the night they continued to stay wrapped up in each other.

They continued to exchange lazy kisses, not wanting to fall asleep just yet, and not wanting to be separated. Race would be damned if he was ever going to treat Spot the same after this: he had been missing out on kissing and cuddling Spot for far too long, and he was planning on making up for all their lost time now that he could express his feelings freely.

Eventually they settled down, just content to hold each other close and sit quietly in each other’s company. As they laid there - Race lying on his back and Spot lying on top of his chest - Race began to think back on their relationship from over the years, slightly puzzled. He began to grow curious about when Spot’s feelings for him shifted from friendly to more romantic and how he hadn’t noticed it, but he couldn’t place it. He began to wonder about Spot’s true feelings for him, and how far back they actually ran.

“Hey Spot,” he said whispering to the other boy gently, and Spot hummed back to indicate he heard him. “I’m just curious: when did you realize that your feelings for me were romantic rather than friendly?”

Spot angled his head to get a better look at Race, and Race’s heart melted; he could not get over how amazing it felt to have Spot wrapped up in his arms knowing that he loved him back.

“You know when we were making gingerbread cookies the other day, and we were talking about the cigar scene in Spiderman and you asked how I remembered that because it was so long ago?” he asked. Race nodded. “I remember that day vividly because that was the first time I realized I liked you as more than a friend. Something inside me clicked as I was watching you act all crazy; you were just so carefree and goofy, and your laughter was the most beautiful sound I had ever heard.”

He wondered why Spot avoided his questions about that the other day, and the answer was shocking. That had been so long ago, and it baffled him to know how long Spot had liked him, because he never believed that Spot would like him back.

Race smirked at the other boy. “Dang Spotty, you’ve really been in love with me for that long? Ya know, that really puts a strike through your whole tough guy act, since you couldn’t even work up the guts to ask me out.

Spot scoffed, “Aww c’mon, cut a guy some slack. I genuinely never thought you would like me back, and I didn’t want to ruin our friendship by admitting my feelings for you, so I hid it.”  
He turned and gave Race a quick kiss. “I’m glad I don’t have to hide it anymore.”

Race felt his heart melt. Race knew that because of Spot’s past he wasn’t the best at sharing his emotions with others - which is part of the reason it took so long for him to confess - so hearing something so sweet and sincere coming from him brought him an immense amount of happiness. He knew that now that he had Spot, he wouldn’t be letting him go anytime soon.

“I’m glad we don’t have to hide it too,” he said smiling back at Spot. “Plus, now that everything is out there, you should know that I will not be hiding my affection any longer,” he said smirking. “I know you’re not a huge fan of cuddling and PDA and all that shit, but I’ve missed out on that for too long, and you’re not gonna get let off that hook that easy.” To prove his point, Race begin to pepper a bunch of kisses all over Spot’s face.

“Alright, alright, I get it Race,” Spot said laughing and pushing away Race’s face to prevent him from getting any more kisses in. Spot was acting annoyed, but the genuine smile on Spot’s face indicated otherwise.

“And besides,” Spot said, “Not everything is out in the open yet.” Race looked at him confused.

“What do you mean?”

“Two things: One, we’ve still gotta tell our friends, but that can wait till we got back to school, and Two, I told you the story about how I’d known I’d fallen for you, but you haven’t told me the yours yet,” Spot said, looking at Race expectantly.

Race shrugged. “Honestly Spot, I’m not really sure when it happened. I know I’ve felt this for a while, but I’m not really sure when it clicked into place: it kinda just feels like my feelings for you were always there beneath the surface, and I knew they were there, but this week really brought attention to them to the point where I just couldn’t ignore them any longer.”

Race turned to Spot, “I’m really glad I asked you to fake date me this week. If I hadn’t, who knows how long it would’ve taken us to come to our senses.”

“Yeah, I’m glad something good came out of your stupidity,” Spot said, causing them both to laugh. 

They spent the rest of the night talking quietly and exchanging lazy kisses, eventually drifting off to sleep in each others’ arms. Race fell asleep with a huge smile on his face, knowing that his relationship with Spot was only beginning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> They finally did it! I had such an amazing time writing this chapter, and I hope you guys enjoyed it. Sadly, this story is almost over. I will be posting one more chapter, and epilogue, to wrap up this story a little more, so I'll see you all next week for the final chapter!


	14. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The boys head back to school and share their news with their friends.

Race’s POV:  
Race stood next to Spot in front of the group that they had gathered in the dorms’ common area. They had just arrived back to campus after spending the week with Race’s family, and they wanted to tell the others about their exciting week right away.

Unfortunately, they had arrived later than expected, around one in the morning, and many of their friends were not happy about being disturbed at that hour, especially for some reason that Spot and Race were yet to reveal. 

Race looked over the group. Half of the group - Katherine, Davey, Jack, Crutchie, Jojo, Blink, and Specs - had been working on projects for their classes despite the late hour, and were reluctant to be pulled away from their last-minute work. The other half of the group - Albert, Elmer, Romeo, Sarah, Tommy Boy, Henry, Buttons, and Mush - were simply chilling in their dorms and didn’t want to be pulled away from whatever Netflix show they were watching. 

Regardless of what each group had been doing, they all looked annoyed at being disturbed at such a late hour, even if they were all already awake.

“Alright guys, we’ve humored you for this long, so can we speed whatever this is up?” Davey said looking exasperated. “I’d really like to get back to my essay that I was working on.”

Race excitedly obliged. He cleared his throat, “Dearly beloved friends, we are gathered here today because Spot and I have an announcement.” 

Race saw a couple of his friends roll their eyes at his antics, Spot included.

“Could you give us a drumroll please?” Race asked and he watched his friends reluctantly start a - very lackluster - drumroll. 

Race let them keep going for a while until Crutchie shouted out, “Just tell us already!”

“Alright, alright. Spot and I just wanted to tell you all that we are officially dating!” Race exclaimed, wrapping an arm around Spot and kissing him on the cheek. Spot wrapped an arm around him in return, turning red from Race’s affection.

The group in front of them was silent for a minute before all hell broke loose. There was shouting everywhere, and their friends were looking back and forth between them and rushing forward to talk to them.

“It’s about time you two got together. You guys have been pining over each other for ages. Anyone could see that,” he said smirking. “Everyone except you two, that is.”

Race stared at their friends dumbfounded as they all nodded in agreement.

“Was it really that obvious?” Race asked.

“Yeah,” Albert said. “We actually all had a bet going on when you two would get together, because we all knew it wasn’t a matter of if, but when. Which reminds me,” he said turning to Jack, “Pay up, bitch. You owe me $20 bucks.”

Jack turned to Spot and Race. “You couldn’t have waited another couple of months before getting together? You just lost me 20 bucks,” he said groaning as he dug a crumpled 20 dollar bill out of his pocket. He reluctantly handed it over to Albert, who had a huge smile on his face. A couple of the other guys exchanged money as well

“You guys bet on us getting together?” Spot said scoffing. “You guys were that invested in our love life, but couldn’t bother to nudge us in the right direction.”

Katherine shrugged, “Eh, we knew you guys would figure it out eventually, so we didn’t really want to get involved. Speaking of which, how did you figure it out?”

And so Spot and Race went back and forth explaining their interesting break to the rest of their friends. When they were done the rest of the group stared at them dumbfounded.

“It really took all of that for you guys to figure it out?” Specs asked exasperatedly. “No offense, but you two idiots.”

Race just smiled and turned to Spot, “Yeah, but we’re each other’s idiots.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know, I know, that ending was kind of short and cheesy, so I apologize for that. I can’t believe this story is finally over! What started as a small idea of something to do while bored in quarantine has expanded to a full-fledged project that I had a blast working on, so thank you guys for sticking by my side on this little journey. I just want to give a massive thank you to everyone who read, commented, or left kudos on this story. Your support meant everything to me, and I probably wouldn’t have finished this story without you guys to motivate me. Thank you guys so much!


End file.
